An architecture dominated by religion
The Manueline style dominated the archipelago until the 16th century. Specific to Portugal, it developed in the 15th century under the reign of King Manuel I (1469-1521), as the country became the world's greatest maritime power thanks to its great explorers. This eclectic style borrows from flamboyant Gothic as well as Moorish architecture, including a Romanesque heritage, and is characterized by an abundance of decorative motifs prefiguring the Baroque period. Motifs characteristic of the Manueline period reflect the great expeditions and highlight the country's maritime power, with shells and navigational instruments (anchors, caravel prows, etc.) on civil and military buildings as well as churches. As far as religious buildings are concerned, this is probably the most widespread style in the Azores. There are many examples in Vila Franca do Campo. The Bom Jesus da Pedra church is one of them. São Miguel Arcanjo, also dating from the 15th century, is one of the oldest in the archipelago. Its Manueline façade is also decorated with azulejos, the earthenware tiles that are the pride and joy of mainland Portugal and its colonies. Another example from the same period is the Nossa Senhora da Piedade church in Ponta Garça.
The archipelago then underwent a long, austere and functional classical period, characteristic of the Renaissance, as exemplified by the Cathedral of the Church of the Holy Saviour in Angra do Heroísmo. In Vila Franca do Campo, the Convento de S. Francisco, with its Renaissance-style rooms featuring floor-to-ceiling vaulted ceilings, now welcomes tourists as a hotel.
Finally, the eminently Baroque style, marked by its exuberance of form and motif, made its appearance in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although it is so called because of the period, it resembles in many respects the Manueline architecture that developed locally. This resemblance is partly due to the materials, which remained basalt and lime for the walls, so that ornamentation was concentrated on the door and window surrounds and cornices. So, rather than European Baroque, it's a return to the ornamental art already present on the archipelago after an austere, classical period imposed during the Renaissance.
The 18th-century hermitage of Notre-Dame de la Paix is a magnificent example. Situated on the heights of Vila Franca do Campo and slightly off-center from the rest of the town, its steep staircase, whose landings are decorated withazulejos depicting the Virgin Mary, offers a magnificent panoramic view of the town below and its islet offshore. The staircase was added in 1967 to make the little hermitage one of the town's main tourist attractions.
In Ponta Delgada, the Town Hall and City Gates are fine examples of the Baroque period. The surprising Church of Our Lady of Mercy in Angra do Heroísmo can also be added to the list. Light blue in color, it features a bright red coat of arms on its façade. Its bell towers are topped with stylized domes that could be reminiscent of Moorish architecture.
Civil architecture and urban planning
The typical rural house bears witness to clearly identifiable continental influences. To name but a few: from the Algarve (southern Portugal) on the island of Santa Maria (rather sparse settlement, four-sided houses) or from another southern region, the Alentejo, on São Miguel (rather concentric settlement, two-sided houses), while on the other islands, especially in the west, influences from northern Portugal are more prevalent. This is particularly true of Corvo.
In the early days of settlement, most houses were covered with straw roofs, except on the island of Terceira, where a grass called carrega was used by default. As more resistant materials and new architectural rules were applied to construction, the houses on the nine islands of the archipelago tended to become more harmonized. But the territory's most distinctive feature remains the use of basalt.
The first buildings on the island of São Miguel were very rustic: a central room through which one entered and where family life was concentrated, flanked by two adjoining rooms - the kitchen (with oven and fireplace for bread) and the bedroom. A cistern to collect rainwater, a well and a burra de milho, a kind of wooden pyramid used to dry corn, completed the family infrastructure.
Santa Maria was the first producer of the lime that today covers so many houses in the archipelago. Its white houses feature tall, cylindrical, openwork chimneys on either side.
In the eastern islands, until the 19th century, straw houses(cafuas or palheiros) were built in the countryside, with a low door and one or two small windows. With the first emigrations to Brazil and the arrival of commercial money, the situation changed: new houses were built, with hard roofs, one storey,azulejo panels on the facade, and sometimes even exterior or interior staircases.
In Terceira, houses originally had a single storey, while the façade featured a single central door. Later, two-storey houses were also built, with a central building featuring two sash windows, and a second, lateral building for the kitchen. Another curiosity, particularly on Rue De Jesus in Praia da Vitória, is the picturesque chimney stacks. Thin slabs of basalt are joined together by a thread of mortar; their triangular shape evokes two hands joined in prayer, which justifies their nickname: cheminées de mãos postas - "joined hands".
A change of scene on the island of Pico, where the houses were separated into two buildings. The first was the kitchen; the second, usually two storeys high, housed the bedroom above, and the women's reception or work room below. The recurrent bad weather imposed certain constraints, notably the small number of openings. Later, the kitchen was attached to the main house. The tradition of scattering pine leaves all over the floor, spreading their aroma throughout the interior, continued.
Faial offers several types of construction, both archaic (a single room with a straw roof) and more "modern" - tiled roofs and three rooms on one floor. The two-storey houses, with irregular stone walls bonded with mortar and a façade flanked by four doors, are reminiscent of winegrowers' dwellings in central Italy or in northern Portugal as far as the Tagus.
Ponta Delgada and Angra de Heroísmo are two emblematic Azorean towns. The latter is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Their patterned black and white cobblestone streets and squares make a powerful impression on travelers, as it is unusual to find such a refined and symbolic relationship to street construction elsewhere in Europe, or even the world. This widespread practice gives the streets a distinctly artistic and architectural character - they become veritable works of art guiding the footsteps of passers-by. The motifs are varied. Sometimes illustrative, linked to the colonial imagination, they represent exotic fruits and cereals (including corn), anchors and boats - not without echoes of Manueline ornamentation. At other times, they are more abstract, resembling large friezes that anamorphose with perspective, like so many confusing streets.
Contemporary architecture
The Azores are not renowned for their contemporary architecture - all the more so as, unlike many archipelagos around the world, recent tourist construction has been remarkably well controlled, preserving both landscape and heritage. A few examples do, however, merit our attention.
The Furnas Monitoring and Research Center by the Aires Mateus agency is a fine example of architecture integrated into the landscape. The basalt and wood buildings, with their sober design, have an abstract, geometric character. This beautiful architectural gesture gives the minimalist buildings a sculptural appearance. A subtle blend is created between vernacular architecture (the walls are made of basalt) and contemporary forms.
Also worth a visit is the Paulo Gouveia (1939-2009) Wine Museum, built in 1999 on the island of Pico. Its distinctive feature is a footbridge leading to a kiosk overlooking the surrounding landscape. Its bright red-painted wood provides a magnificent colorful contrast to the basalt soil on which it is built.
The archipelago participates in the project to group together buildings by contemporary architects on the website (http://roteiroarquitectura.pt/mapaa) , enabling enthusiasts to discover notable buildings along their route. The map is very useful for easily locating a place nearby, or planning a trip. The site gives a good idea of the evolution and progression of contemporary forms on the island, and the frequent marriage of a sober vernacular style with beautiful, thoroughly modern architectural lines - never to spoil the landscape, but on the contrary to be incorporated into it, without a hitch. Such is the case, for example, of this beautiful pink villa, designed by the Italian agency Atelier Mezzo on the island of São Miguel. The ground-floor walls of this former stable are made of basalt, while the upper part, painted pink, is a minimalist reminder of the colorful houses found throughout the archipelago.
