Geologically is part of the volcanic complex of Capelo, consisting of about 20 cones of slag and its lava spills, over a volcano-tectonic alignment general direction WNW-ESE. The Capelinhos name was due to the existence of two islets called “Islanders Capelinhos” on the spot in front of the Lighthouse Capelinhos.

The volcano remained active for 13 months, between September 27, 1957 and October 24, 1958. The eruption of Capelinhos, have probably been an overlap of two distinct eruptions, one started the September 27, 1957, and Monday, 14 May 1958. From October 25, the volcano came into resting phase. The volcanological point of view, this volcano is considered an active volcano.

The Capelinhos volcano is recognized as a milestone in the world volcanology. “It was a submarine eruption properly observed, documented and studied, from the beginning to the end. He appeared in privileged terms, from an inhabited island, with road, lighthouse and private phones.”

As a result of the eruption, between the months of May to October 1958, the total area of the island (of 171.42 km²) increased by about 2.50 km² (to 173.02 km²). Currently, this area was reduced to about half (about 172.42 square kilometers) because of the very consolidated nature of the rocks and the erosive action of the waves. Climbing the volcano presents some risks and should therefore be carried out in the appropriate tracks and under the guidance of a certified guide. It should be noted that the vent volcano, situated in its North Cabeço, releases water vapor and toxic gases with temperatures of around 180-200 ° C.

Capelinhos underground museum - Interpretation Centre of the Volcano

Peter’s Scrimshaw Museum started in 1986 and is now a place that those who travel to Faial must visit. In the Azores, scrimshaw was not born on board, but on land through the hands of regional craftsmen. The best scrimshaw artists who worked on the islands are represented in the collections of the Museum.

More information: http://www.petercafesport.com/pcs/museu.php

Environmental and Cultural Center in Boqueirão Whale Factory

The factory Whale is one of the important buildings but the whaling architecture, ordered built for the use of whale oil, which was the first great Florentine industry and economic activity that most benefited the local people.
The first work in this factory dating from the summer of 1944, a time that was marked by the world hunting the whale heyday, when there was a exciting rising oil price.
This time is on site Environmental and Cultural Center Boqueirão Whale Factory, which allows Florentines revive their ancestral memories and an interpretive center with a didactic perspective – teaching. There is also nearby the Hotel das Flores.

Convent of St. Bonaventure

This convent comes from a donation made by Father Ignatius Coelho in 1641 and was an important center Franciscan end of Six hundred. In 1832 this convent inn closes for imposition of D. Pedro, due to the appearance of Liberalism. In 1855 now belongs to Anthony Peixoto Pimentel who founded here the Hospital das Flores in 1878. In 1969 becomes prep school on the island and in 1980 municipal interest Monument, in 1993, after restoration, reopens the service Museum of Flores.

The collection of the institution has several collections on the history of Faial. Among them are works from fig tree pith, artist Faial Euclides Silveira da Rosa, born on the island of Faial in 1907 and died in Brazil, São Paulo in 1979.1 as well as works of Portuguese painters António Dacosta, Sousa Vieira Pinto and Lusitano.

Repository of a wealth of symbolic value, the Horta Museum is made up of heterogeneous set of collections, to understand the chronological period from the sixteenth century to the present: ethnography, objects and devices connected to ancient crafts and traditional agricultural technologies, flax, wool and ceramic; technological objects related to the history of the Port of Horta, as with the submarine cable stations from the nineteenth century to the twentieth operated in this nerve center of the North Atlantic communications; religious art; fine arts; photographic documents; printed documents and manuscripts; natural history specimens.

The Museum Centre of Capelinhos reports the eruption of the Volcano of Capelinhos in 1957, with photographs of the phenomenon and slag from the eruption.

The Whaling Museum, in Lajes do Pico

Whaling Industry Museum, in São Roque do Pico

Wine Museum in Madalena.
Them presents collective memories associated with regional cycles – historical and mythical – whaling and wine industry on the island.

The Whaling Museum

Consisting of a set of three old houses of whaling boats century. XIX, the interesting Whaling Museum shows the importance of whaling activity on Pico Island. The Whaling tradition of the island dates back to the eighteenth century, when the Americans arrived that led to whale hunting, an activity that has come to be one of the main livelihoods of the island, along with the production of various products derived from cetaceans. Opened in 1988, the Whaling Museum, in conjunction with the Whaling Industry Museum, is unique in Europe, demonstrating the importance and difficulties of this activity for future generations, keeping such an important heritage preserved.

Whaling Industry Museum

Located in the old Society Whale Factory of “Frames Dinghies gathered Limited” built in 1942, the Whaling Industry Museum portrays the importance that the activity of Whaling printed on the Island. Whaling this tradition dates back to the eighteenth century, when the Americans arrived that led to whale hunting, an activity that has come to be one of the main livelihoods of São Roque do Pico and the Island itself, along with the production of various products derived from cetaceans .
The activity did not depend only hunting cetaceans, but many of the products they originated, such as oils and meals, which in this museum realized. The Factory Frames gathered operated from 1946 to 1984, housing since 2007 this museum with a rich estate which has two large boilers, oil tanks, furnaces, electric generators, a mill, among many other industrial structures required in such industries. A heritage and important for the island and the archipelago, which has shaped the lives of people for many years.

Wine Museum

Museum opened in 1999, housed in the former convent of the Carmelites (XVII / XVIII), to expose the history of wine, organizing visits to vineyards and wine tasting. During the months of September allows the participation of visitors in harvest.

This museum since its installation seeks to have a function other than just a straightforward exhibition of its collection, as well as the works seeks to expose testimonies that are part of the cultural heritage, developing a set of activities that are intended to supplement the information and the formation of visitors.

Receives visits schools thus applying the training investment subsequently performed, since the exhibited products removed from its original context, are presented under a new framework in order to meet scientific, educational, cultural and artistic objectives.

It is currently housed in the former bulk of the building site once used for storage of grain and wine produced on the island.

The collection seeks to recreate historical, ethnographic and cultural events on the island, particularly those most directly connected to the everyday life of the people.

Plays a typical house of the island with its traditional architectural elements, they are represented a wine cellar with its vessels from the mill to the presses. Implements intended for land tilling has its representation in the various instruments related to traditional crafts, according to the professions. Thus they are represented carpentry, cooperage, and pottery, for example.

Attached museum there is a garden where exposed sev

eral artillery systems from the various fortifications that defended the island, placed in strategic points of the coast, mostly missing today.

The museum further comprises two cores, an allusive whaling housed in a former tent of whaling boats at the port of Santa Cruz and the other a typical windmill of the island, located in the village of sources.

The Natural History collections relate to the museum’s founding in the late nineteenth century, and reflect the scientific spirit of the age. They include examples of different parts of the globe, although predominate Azorean specimens. There are remarkable collections of fish, crustaceans, birds, mammals, mollusks, insects, arachnids, reptiles, flora, geology and mineralogy. Much of the collection also features the original founder of the labels.

It is a government institution dedicated to ethnography and the dissemination and cultural promotion that integrates the network of museums of the Azores, working directly under the Government department responsible Azores on culture.

The collection of the institution consists mainly of ethnographic pieces, with special focus on local production of ceramics, used in kitchens and shops of the houses, and agricultural activities. Integrate this collection yet, ceramic tiles produced in the nearby island of São Miguel (the Lagoon) and Terceira Island, as well as parts produced in Portugal and other European countries. Collections are dating from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The permanent exhibition “The Clay Ceramics and Daily Life”, are still small groups of related agriculture, weaving and the daily life of the population of the island.