Madre de Deus Manor House

An example of a seventeenth and eighteenth-century manor house typical of the higher areas of the port cities of the Portuguese overseas territories. Bettencourt de Vasconcelos, Capitão-mor (captain-major) of ordinances and one of the commanders of the siege to the fortress on Mount Brazil in 1641-42 lived here. There was an equestrian centre here in whose riding arena some of the famous amateur bullfighters of the island were trained. Currently, it serves as the Office of the Representative of the Republic to the Azores.