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Toledo is an unincorporated human settlement in the civil parish of Santo Amaro, in the municipality of Velas in Portuguese island of São Jorge Island in the Azores. ==History== Although located in high altitude mountains of the northern coast, Toledo is situated with good access to potable water and springs, explaining its early settlement by Spanish and Portuguese colonists. Its name was likely given to the area by early settlers from the Toledo region in Spain, who arrived in the mid-15th and the 16th centuries, constructing houses and support structures to guard their animals and cereals, from rock excavated from cavities in the side of the mountain. These quarries were discovered in 2008, in the area of Ribeira Funda and Outeirão. The early settler families included Ávilas from Spain, Bettencourts of France (and the descendants of Jean de Bettencourt, the ''King of the Canary Islands''), and the Silveiras (descendants of the Flem Willem van der Haegen, the first settler of Topo). Further, immigrants from the Toledo region of Spain also settled in the region, including Teixeiras, Silvas, Matias, Constantinos, Oliveiras and Sousas. Many of these early families also captured the waters of the region by constructing earthen/volcanic rock tanks for their animals and built cisterns or pools to collect water for local consumption. The original houses have long disappeared, even as the community thrived on the raising of swine for export or local consumption. In the waters north of Fajã Rasa (near Ponta do Calhau), a Spanish cargo ship, ''Algorta'', heavily laiden with cotton shipwrecked on 22 March 1864. The ship had nine crew members on board who were saved, but the ship was lost, its hulk deteriorating along the coast for years (with only the green-tinged rocks and partial frame lying along the black rocks off-coast as proof of the events). Since the 18th century and until the 20th century, the lands around Toledo were used to produce wheat and rye, to be exported to continental Portugal. Today, there are few cereal crops cultivated in this region, the exception is corn, used for human and animal consumption. Toledo is primarily a cattle and herding society, with most dairy and beef cattle free-ranging throughout the year. Milk from dairy cattle is sold by the local farmers to produce the renowned São Jorge Cheese, a symbol of the islands protected food culture.〔The European Union has identified São Jorge Cheese as protected regional mark, and the local producers have organized to form the ''Confraria do Queijo de São Jorge'' to promote the cheese throughout the European market.〕 Under the supervision of José Pereira da Cunha da Silveira e Sousa, at that time president of the local government, the citizens of the Toledo constructed their first inter-communitarian house of worship, the Chapel of São José,〔The cornerstone was laid on 13 June 1876, while its first service occurred on 16 May 1879.〕 the Império do Espírito Santo, cemetery and public fountain, in addition to a tunnel across Pico Alto (which they referred to as the ''Mina'', or (英語:mine)). The aim of this subterranean construction, completed in 1876, was to carry water from Fonte da Chã (in the south of the island), across Pico Alto, to the public fountain in the north of the island. The ''Mina de Água'' ((英語:Water Mine)) as it was called, supported the population until the end of the 20th century, when water was finally piped in by the municipal government in Velas. Around 2006, the settlement included between 50-60 residents, that were primarily dedicated to agriculture and cattle-raising. This is in sharp contrast to the 18th century, when 300 inhabitants resided in Toledo. In was the 15–21 February 1964 Rosais Earthquake that affected these numbers, resulting in many local residents abandoning their homes, emigrating to Canada, the United States or Brazil (at least 153 people remained following this event). About 50% of the residences in Toledo were lost during the event, and forty years later there still remained temporary structures in the village to house many of the displaced, left by the U.S. Forces stationed at the Lajes Field. This also reduced the land under cultivation, the reduction in young residents and the exodus of large families from the community: Toledo has not recovered from this depopulation. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Toledo (Velas)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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