Atlantic Islander
02-28-2014, 01:39 AM
Posted on 24 February 2014.
By Carolina Matos, Editor
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/5001853705_0f6beb91af_b.jpg
The Furnas Valley is home to the Furnas Parish, a small isolated rustic community of about 900 dwellings, set within a 6km diameter crater of a dormant caldera surrounded by towering hills with geysers and fumaroles nested within the lush green landscape.
The caldera, exhibiting volcanic eruptive activity, is part of the Volcanic Complex of Furnas classified as an active stratovolcano. Since 1630, after the Azores were populated by the Portuguese, eruptions have occurred at regular century long spaced intervals.
Formed over 30 thousand years ago, the volcanic activity in the Valley is famous for its intermittent bubble-shower geysers and the many geothermal fumaroles together with a variety of thermal mineral water springs. Considered to hold one of the world’s largest thermal water resources, some waters are hot, some cold, some saline, some sulphurous and some are just sparkling.
Indeed, the nine islands of the Azores are laid in the mid-Atlantic ridge where Eurasian and North American tectonic plates collide. The whole archipelago was formed from about 32 active subaquatic eruptions raising the nine islands up from the ocean floor for many millions of years.
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Entrance-2.jpg
The Terra Nostra Garden Hotel
The Terra Nostra Garden Hotel is the most recognizable hotel of the Azores. A treasured landmark, it is nestled inside the volcanic complex of Furnas Valley surrounded by dramatic cliffs and exquisite lush scenery.
Combining its 1930’s vintage style with the comforts of contemporary luxuries, the whole setting offers the visitor a memorable and inspiring stay in one of the most beautiful, scenic locations of São Miguel island.
Built in 1935, the Terra Nostra has passed from generation to generation remaining to this day in the Bensaúde family, the hotel’s first owners. The original building was fashioned in the Art Deco style by Azorean construction engineer Manuel António Vasconcelos.
Without sacrificing its unique architectural Deco décor, along the years, the Terra Nostra has gone through some notable transformations while retaining its vintage aura. The renovation work succeeded to blend the hotel’s distinctive old style with modern conveniences, providing leisure travelers with a restful modernist setting, complete with glamour, harmony and tranquility.
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Garden-View-Fa%C3%A7ade.jpg
Maintaining most of its original Art Deco Wing, the Terra Nostra renovations added the Garden Wing when it was fully restored in the late 1990s. In 2013, it was again renovated to expand to 86 rooms, adding an indoor heated pool, a wellness center, reading lounge, a contemporary lounge bar, banquet and conference room among other facilities.
The iconic Garden Hotel panoramic restaurant is set to offer visitors a sense of place at the Terra Nostra, allowing guests to escape into a bygone era of simplicity and elegance. Overlooking the Terra Nostra Botanic Park, the restaurant lounge offers stunning views of the evergreen lush flora exceeding all expectations.
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Restaurant-3.jpg
The Terra Nostra Botanical Park
The Terra Nostra botanical park started being shaped in 1780, around “The Yankee Hall” built in 1775 by Thomas Hickling, a Boston trader who went into self-exile to São Miguel island, in 1769, to escape the pressures of his conservative loyalist father during the American Revolution.
Following the Independence Declaration, at his request, Hickling was appointed, in 1795, American Consul in the Azores, by President George Washington. To this day, the residence is surrounded by the original trees imported from North America by the Hicking family. As a reminder, Hickling left his name carved on a rock dated of 1770. He had left America in 1769 to never return.
http://blog.sunvil.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Casa-do-Parque-Aaron-Akinyemi.jpg
The Yankee Hall
A work in progress, the Terra Nostra Park has since expanded to an area of 12.5 hectares, being recognized today as one of the most exquisite botanical parks in the world. The area holds thousands of botanical species which exceed 2,500 trees and 3,000 shrubs. Crisscrossed by trails, the whole area emanates a stunning atmosphere of exoticism; complete with a collection of endemic plants most representative of the Azorean flora.
Visitors will find an extensive collection of exotic trees, scrubs and flowers, brought in from all over the world by generations of Azorean travelers and adventurers. It includes a lively 600 variety camellia collection, a vibrant azalea collection, a fern collection, a cycad garden and a ginkgo biloba garden. The endemic garden displays many Azorean species, namely the laurissilva and the uva da serra both unique to the Azores. There are also subspecies of European scrubs such as the laurel, chestnut trees, heather and holly.
The Terra Nostra Park also holds the majestic outdoors Thermal Water Pool, first built by Thomas Hickling in 1780 and enlarged in 1935. It is an enclosed pool of iron-rich thermal volcanic bubbling water at a temperature of about 109F (40 C) which offers the visitor a unique spa-like experience of immersion and relaxation.
The most placid Furnas Lake
Geologically, the nine islands forming the Azores archipelago comprise of a 20–36-million-year old plateau, holding 88 lakes and lagoons. The islands were created from a long history of active volcanism of which the caldera and the Furnas Lake stand today as live reminders of how the islands where formed.
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/caldeiras-von-furnas-azoren-251450e0-8070-46da-8f1e-d0c1bfc67b86.jpg
Fumaroles, geysers and a variety of thermal waters in the caldera of Furnas
Of enormous beauty and bewilderment, besides the geysers and the many fumaroles and thermal water varieties, the Furnas caldera holds the mesmerizing azalea fringed Furnas Lake [Lagoa das Furnas] of exquisite beauty. The second largest on the island, the lake holds over one million cubic litters of water.
The area, part of the Volcanic Complex of Furnas, comprises the Furnas Lake and a number of geysers, fumaroles and hot water springs. They offer the visitor a most beautiful serene lake view next to the most daunting vision of volcanic activity. Here the ground is always steaming with boiling mud made of the hot magma beneath. A number of man-made holes were dug into the ground, lined with cement, about 25” in diameter and four feet deep, used by the local people and local restaurants to slow cook meals of which the Cozido das Furnas [Furnas boiled dinner] is the most famous.
To restore and preserve the ecosystem and the biodiversity of the Furnas Lake area, the Furnas Monitoring and Research Center (CMIF) was created in 2011 situated on the south margin of the lake. Its mission is to clean the water basin, to restore the original habitat of the lake and to recover and preserve the ecosystem of this whole area, considered one of the major tourism attractions on the island. Monitored by the Center of Volcanology and Geological Risk Assessment of the University of the Azores, the facility is open to visitors.
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Lagoa_das_Furnas_ilha_de_S%C3%A3o_Miguel_Arquip%C3 %A9lago_dos_A%C3%A7ores_Portugal.jpg
Full view of the placid Furnas Lake
source (http://portuguese-american-journal.com/travel-the-enchanting-beauty-of-furnas-valley-azores/)
By Carolina Matos, Editor
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/5001853705_0f6beb91af_b.jpg
The Furnas Valley is home to the Furnas Parish, a small isolated rustic community of about 900 dwellings, set within a 6km diameter crater of a dormant caldera surrounded by towering hills with geysers and fumaroles nested within the lush green landscape.
The caldera, exhibiting volcanic eruptive activity, is part of the Volcanic Complex of Furnas classified as an active stratovolcano. Since 1630, after the Azores were populated by the Portuguese, eruptions have occurred at regular century long spaced intervals.
Formed over 30 thousand years ago, the volcanic activity in the Valley is famous for its intermittent bubble-shower geysers and the many geothermal fumaroles together with a variety of thermal mineral water springs. Considered to hold one of the world’s largest thermal water resources, some waters are hot, some cold, some saline, some sulphurous and some are just sparkling.
Indeed, the nine islands of the Azores are laid in the mid-Atlantic ridge where Eurasian and North American tectonic plates collide. The whole archipelago was formed from about 32 active subaquatic eruptions raising the nine islands up from the ocean floor for many millions of years.
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Entrance-2.jpg
The Terra Nostra Garden Hotel
The Terra Nostra Garden Hotel is the most recognizable hotel of the Azores. A treasured landmark, it is nestled inside the volcanic complex of Furnas Valley surrounded by dramatic cliffs and exquisite lush scenery.
Combining its 1930’s vintage style with the comforts of contemporary luxuries, the whole setting offers the visitor a memorable and inspiring stay in one of the most beautiful, scenic locations of São Miguel island.
Built in 1935, the Terra Nostra has passed from generation to generation remaining to this day in the Bensaúde family, the hotel’s first owners. The original building was fashioned in the Art Deco style by Azorean construction engineer Manuel António Vasconcelos.
Without sacrificing its unique architectural Deco décor, along the years, the Terra Nostra has gone through some notable transformations while retaining its vintage aura. The renovation work succeeded to blend the hotel’s distinctive old style with modern conveniences, providing leisure travelers with a restful modernist setting, complete with glamour, harmony and tranquility.
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Garden-View-Fa%C3%A7ade.jpg
Maintaining most of its original Art Deco Wing, the Terra Nostra renovations added the Garden Wing when it was fully restored in the late 1990s. In 2013, it was again renovated to expand to 86 rooms, adding an indoor heated pool, a wellness center, reading lounge, a contemporary lounge bar, banquet and conference room among other facilities.
The iconic Garden Hotel panoramic restaurant is set to offer visitors a sense of place at the Terra Nostra, allowing guests to escape into a bygone era of simplicity and elegance. Overlooking the Terra Nostra Botanic Park, the restaurant lounge offers stunning views of the evergreen lush flora exceeding all expectations.
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Restaurant-3.jpg
The Terra Nostra Botanical Park
The Terra Nostra botanical park started being shaped in 1780, around “The Yankee Hall” built in 1775 by Thomas Hickling, a Boston trader who went into self-exile to São Miguel island, in 1769, to escape the pressures of his conservative loyalist father during the American Revolution.
Following the Independence Declaration, at his request, Hickling was appointed, in 1795, American Consul in the Azores, by President George Washington. To this day, the residence is surrounded by the original trees imported from North America by the Hicking family. As a reminder, Hickling left his name carved on a rock dated of 1770. He had left America in 1769 to never return.
http://blog.sunvil.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Casa-do-Parque-Aaron-Akinyemi.jpg
The Yankee Hall
A work in progress, the Terra Nostra Park has since expanded to an area of 12.5 hectares, being recognized today as one of the most exquisite botanical parks in the world. The area holds thousands of botanical species which exceed 2,500 trees and 3,000 shrubs. Crisscrossed by trails, the whole area emanates a stunning atmosphere of exoticism; complete with a collection of endemic plants most representative of the Azorean flora.
Visitors will find an extensive collection of exotic trees, scrubs and flowers, brought in from all over the world by generations of Azorean travelers and adventurers. It includes a lively 600 variety camellia collection, a vibrant azalea collection, a fern collection, a cycad garden and a ginkgo biloba garden. The endemic garden displays many Azorean species, namely the laurissilva and the uva da serra both unique to the Azores. There are also subspecies of European scrubs such as the laurel, chestnut trees, heather and holly.
The Terra Nostra Park also holds the majestic outdoors Thermal Water Pool, first built by Thomas Hickling in 1780 and enlarged in 1935. It is an enclosed pool of iron-rich thermal volcanic bubbling water at a temperature of about 109F (40 C) which offers the visitor a unique spa-like experience of immersion and relaxation.
The most placid Furnas Lake
Geologically, the nine islands forming the Azores archipelago comprise of a 20–36-million-year old plateau, holding 88 lakes and lagoons. The islands were created from a long history of active volcanism of which the caldera and the Furnas Lake stand today as live reminders of how the islands where formed.
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/caldeiras-von-furnas-azoren-251450e0-8070-46da-8f1e-d0c1bfc67b86.jpg
Fumaroles, geysers and a variety of thermal waters in the caldera of Furnas
Of enormous beauty and bewilderment, besides the geysers and the many fumaroles and thermal water varieties, the Furnas caldera holds the mesmerizing azalea fringed Furnas Lake [Lagoa das Furnas] of exquisite beauty. The second largest on the island, the lake holds over one million cubic litters of water.
The area, part of the Volcanic Complex of Furnas, comprises the Furnas Lake and a number of geysers, fumaroles and hot water springs. They offer the visitor a most beautiful serene lake view next to the most daunting vision of volcanic activity. Here the ground is always steaming with boiling mud made of the hot magma beneath. A number of man-made holes were dug into the ground, lined with cement, about 25” in diameter and four feet deep, used by the local people and local restaurants to slow cook meals of which the Cozido das Furnas [Furnas boiled dinner] is the most famous.
To restore and preserve the ecosystem and the biodiversity of the Furnas Lake area, the Furnas Monitoring and Research Center (CMIF) was created in 2011 situated on the south margin of the lake. Its mission is to clean the water basin, to restore the original habitat of the lake and to recover and preserve the ecosystem of this whole area, considered one of the major tourism attractions on the island. Monitored by the Center of Volcanology and Geological Risk Assessment of the University of the Azores, the facility is open to visitors.
http://portuguese-american-journal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Lagoa_das_Furnas_ilha_de_S%C3%A3o_Miguel_Arquip%C3 %A9lago_dos_A%C3%A7ores_Portugal.jpg
Full view of the placid Furnas Lake
source (http://portuguese-american-journal.com/travel-the-enchanting-beauty-of-furnas-valley-azores/)