Vila do Corvo (Azores)

Vila do Corvo, has at times been wrongly referred to as Vila Nova do Corvo. The village, the unique agglomeration on the island of Corvo, is constructed of small homes located along narrow roadways and alleys rising along the hills of the southern one-third of the island. The coastal area of the village is dominated by the Corvo Aerodrome and ports linking the community to the outside world.

History

During Portuguese official history, the discovery of the Western Group, occurred during the navigator Diogo de Teive and his son, João de Teive's 1452 regress from the Banks of Newfoundland, after his second voyage of exploration. The Portuguese Court began to refer to the new Ilhas das Flores (), identifying Corvo as the Ilha de Santa Iria (), but other nautical charts continued to refer to this island as the Ilhéu das Flores (), Ilha da Estátua (), Ilha do Farol () or Ilha de São Tomás ().

Regardless, it was only in the following year that King Afonso V of Portugal "recognized" these new discoveries (20 January 1453), and donated them to his uncle, Afonso, Duke of Braganza and Count of Barcelos. Following these successive failed attempts to settle the land, Gonçalo de Sousa (second Captain-Donatário of the islands of Corvo and Flores) was authorized to send slaves (likely from the island of Santo Antão, in the Cape Verde archipelago) to Flores and Corvo as farmers and cattlemen (12 November 1548).; the local population increased; the connection with the outside world reluctantly forced a level of self-sufficency; the impossibility of increasing the area under cultivation; and the frequent incursions by English privateers, that marked the confict during the Iberian Union.

In the 18th century, American whalers arrived in Flores to recruit crews and harpooners, and to re-provision their crews for their campaigns. Due to their experience, inhabitants from Corvo were sought after for these crews, thus beginning a close relationship with the New England community of North America that would continue into the 20th Century that, at times, was more direct then its connection to Lisbon. Consequently, clandestine emigration was a constant of life and problem for the repressive Portuguese authorities who were preoccupied with defections from obligatory military service and reduction in the island tribute. The settlers on Corvo were obliged to pay tribute to their Captains-Donatário, and after 1759 (with the death of the 8th Duke of Aveiro and Count of Santa Cruz), the Crown. During the Liberal Wars, a delegation from Corvo approached Regent Peter IV of Portugal to protest the grave sentiments of the population, and requesting that their payments be alleviated. Manuel Tomás de Avelar, chief of the Corvino delegation, traveled to Angra do Heroísmo to petition the liberal leadership of the Angra Regency. It was Mouzinho da Silveira who attempted to mitigate this servitude with a proposal to reduce the tithe payment (in wheat) and taxes, owing to the poverty on the island. A decree was promulgated on 14 May 1832 by Peter IV and signed in Ponta Delgada, that reduced the tithe in half (20 moios of wheat) in the payment of wheat that was made to the Crown's Donatário, Pedro José Caupers, and the elimination of an annual payment of 80,000 réis. The Crown would then assume the indemnity of the Donatário. The tribute was completely abolished by 1835.

On 20 June 1832, the Regent, Peter IV of Portugal, elevated the settlement of Corvo to status of village and municipal seat. Until this time, Corvo fell within the jurisdiction of Santa Cruz das Flores, as a civil parish of its neighbor across the channel. In 1886, when the Civil Governor of the District of Horta, Manuel Francisco de Medeiros, asked the inhabitants what they wanted on visiting the community, he was surprised by the humble request of a Portuguese national flag for the island. It came in use when Albert of Monaco visited the island during his oceangraphic and photographicexpeditions. It was also visited in 1924 by the Portuguese writer Raul Brandão, who contributed to local myths and idyllic republican community with his work Ilhas Desconhecidas.

By the beginning of the 19th Century immigration continued unabated, except during the period between 1925 and 1955, as more Corvinos left the island in order for economic security (a process that continued well into the 1980s). By 1938, the island received its first permanent medical resident, João Rodrigues Ferreira da Silva, who lived on the island until 1945, and whom the only medical building was named for his involvement in the community.

Geography

References

Category:Municipalities of the Azores Category:Corvo Island