FURNA DO ENXOFRE

In 1879, the famous and princely oceanographer Albert de Monaco, who carried out several expeditions to the Azores, was one of the first to descend into this magical cavern using a long rope ladder, a method that lasted until the present 183-step stone staircase was built in 1953.

The best time to visit is at lunchtime, when the sunlight at its zenith floods into the cavern and illuminates its walls. A classic volcanic phenomenon, the Furna do Enxofre is located in the crater of an ancient volcano, at the bottom of which is a 100 m-deep tunnel leading to an enormous cave. Its vaulted ceiling towers 51 m above an underground lake of cold, sulphurous water almost 200 m in diameter and 180 m deep. The exceptional nature of the site lies in the fact that the lava, after invading the entire caldera, overflowed the lowest point of its rim (to the north-west) and invaded the Luz valley in Praia, it then retreated (by subsidence of the magmatic column or by collapse due to lava drainage through an underwater fracture), leaving only a thin film of lava on the caldera rim (as can be seen from Morro da Urze, for example) and an astonishing cavity: our famous Furna do Enxofre. At the beginning or end of your visit, take the time to discover the small museum dedicated to the cave: it will undoubtedly answer all your questions.