Places to Visit

This monitoring center aims at promoting science and technology. It includes an interactive area, as well as rooms for both leisure and learning activities.

Located in the Old Whaling Factory, the Sea Centre showcases a wide variety of machinery used in bygone days, as well as collections related to whaling in the Azores.

The Boqueirão Environmental Interpretation Centre (CIAB) was created in the tanks where the whale oil, melted in the Boqueirão Whale Factory, was stored. It is a space dedicated to the promotion and knowledge of the most interesting locals of the island, with highlight to the marine environmental.

Here you can learn about resident and migratory birds, living beings that live in the intertidal zone and water column, cetaceans and hydrothermal vents. It is a privileged place for the promotion of scientific knowledge, enriching the experience of those who visit the Natural Park.

The CIAB was chosen to integrate the "Architecture Guide –South and Islands of Portugal" in 2011; it also integrated the “Mostra Ibérica de Património Arquitéctonico – La MIPA” project, within the Lisbon Architecture Triennale 2013 "Close, Closer"; and it was referenced / published in several websites and trade magazines.

The Caldeira Velha Environmental Interpretation Centre (CIACV) is a structure dedicated to the promotion of the natural heritage of the Caldeira Velha´s area, which is classified as a Natural Monument.

The building has, among other aspects, the main purpose of promoting the particular environmental values, allowing the visitor to discover in loco the particularities of this point of interest and acting as a complementary space of informal education. At the same time offers a wide network of resources and promotes a touristic component.

It is also possible to enjoy three thermal pools at the Natural Monument.

Concentrated in a space surrounded by natural landscape, the building is noteworthy for being an “object stamped on the landscape”, which adapts to the existing vegetation and rocks, granting it an organic image, consistent with the space.

The interpretative exhibithion leads the visitor into a voyage through the volcanic origin of the islands, highlighting the Fogo Volcano formation. It also provides general information about the Natural Park, the geosites (emphatysing the ones located at Ribeira Grande) and specially the Caldeira Velha’s Natural Monument, regarding its biodiversity, geodiversity, geothermal and thermal resources.

The Capelinhos Volcano Interpretation Centre (CIVC) has an informative, educational and scientific mission, having for that purpose, a set of exhibitions with special emphasis on Capelinhos Volcano eruption and the formation of the archipelago, but also the various kinds of volcanic activity in the world and the history of Azorean lighthouses.

It was appointed by the European Museum Forum, for best European museum in 2012.

This building was constructed underground, so it wouldn’t interfere with the pre-existing landscape, allowing you to fully enjoy this recent volcanic landscape originated by the eruption of 1957/58. Besides the exhibitions, the Centre has an auditorium and a temporary exhibition of rock and mineral samples.

At the end of the visit, go up the Lighthouse where you can appreciate this unique landscape.

Opened since april 14th 2012, the centre was implemented in the Nature Reserve & Recreation Park of Macela, promoting the outdoor activities and welfare of the population, as well as providing information about cinegetic species in Azores.

Born on the one hand due to the growing willingness of citizens to better understand the natural resources of their region, and on the other due to the need to enrich, protecting and promoting the vast collection of the Forest of the Northeast Service, opened in 2012, the central forest disclosure.

Corvo Wild Birds Interpretation Centre

The Corvo Wild Birds Interpretation Centre is a mandatory stop for those who wish to get to know the Nature Park, as well as the Corvo Island Biosphere Reserve.

Here you can discover the wild birds that occur in the archipelago, and know a bit more about the practice of birdwatching, the tourism activity that places Corvo Island as a location of high importance in the context of international birdwatching.

In this exhibition, visitors have access to several multimedia equipment, which allow them to obtain information related to the Nature Park and the Azores birdlife, including a sightings’ registration screen, a hologram and a book with illustrations of wintering, migratory, nesting and accidental birds. They also have the opportunity to "travel" along the island through a virtual reality experience, for a better understanding of the interaction between Man and the environment.

The Centre also includes Corvo's last mill where, until the beginning of the 60's, was carried out the island's main flourishing process.

The Dabney’s House, recovered by the Regional Government of Azores, portrays the story and passage of the Dabney family in Faial, who left a cultural, historical and scientific heritage, still visible and recognized on the island.

The Dabney family settled in Faial in 1806, when John Bass Dabney was appointed US Consul General in the Azores. Three members of the Dabney family (John, Charles and Samuel) successively engaged this position over a century. In 1854, Charles William Dabney bought a summer house built in Monte da Guia, included in a residential complex consisting of a house with a cistern, a pier and a shelter for two boats, a viewpoint, a small area of vineyards stretching up the slope towards the bay of Porto Pim and a winery, where, currently, is the exhibition about their experiences on the island.

The Dalberto Pombo Environmental Interpretation Centre (CIADP) resulted of the reconstruction of an old historic building in Vila do Porto. 

This Centre houses the collections of the naturalist Dalberto Pombo, true pioneer in the study of the geological and biological diversity of Santa Maria and aims to promote the natural heritage in a dynamic and interactive way, with educational and scientific approach.

To know more about the marine fossils, unique in Azores and of international importance, it was created a new space in the Centre, the Fossils’ House.

At the Centre, visitors have the opportunity to establish direct contact with real stuffed animals, such as butterflies and beetles of the Azores and of the world, migratory birds with stops on the island, and learn about the journey of the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta).

In the Fossils’ House there is a 3D video about the geologic formation of the island with focus on the paleontological richness importance in the international context. It also gives the opportunity to learn about some of the world prestigious investigators on the areas of geology, paleontology, biogeography and stratigraphy. This space also has an educational game where the visitors have the experience to be paleontologists.

This multipurpose facility provides a library, a lab, a media room and an exhibition area. In addition, it is possible to carry out various pedagogic activities.

Coordinated by the Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds, it promotes the preservation and rehabilitation of endemic fauna of the SPA (Special Protected Area) of the Pico da Vara / Ribeira do Guilherme, especially for the protection of the Azores Bullfinch.