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Azores Routes / As Rotas dos Açores

“Project to structure the Cultural and Landscape Touring offer of the Azores, promoted by the Regional Secretariat for Tourism, Mobility and Infrastructures of the Azores. The project is distinguished by the structuring of the tourist offer based on the natural and cultural heritage underlying the current and ancestral Azorean cultural practices. In order to develop a sustainable tourism and to have all the islands of the archipelago in a sustainable development path, even the smaller ones, that usually are not included in the regular Tourism offers, 48 circuits distributed over the nine islands of the archipelago were designed, involving the local communities. The Whaling Route: necessity and opportunity pushed the Azorean man to chase sperm whales from the second half of the 19th century to the 80s of the 20th century. In a Route present in all the islands of the Archipelago, it is unveiled the work tools, the whaling boats, the factories, the workshops, the ramps, the try-works and the lookouts that continue, to this day, to mark the Azorean landscape. But, above all, tourist gets to know the testimonies of this maritime adventure, the fears, thoughts, disasters and adrenaline of this inevitable relationship “man – ocean – animal”. The Volcano Route: without them, there would be no Azores. Without them, there would be no Azorean Culture. In addition to understanding these geological phenomena, the Volcanoes Route, present in all the islands, aims to contextualize the umbilical relationship of the Azorean Man and Nature over centuries, as well as to illustrate all the constraints from this cohabitation to the present day. The Wine Route: based on the particularity of the volcanic soils of the Azores, the cultivation of vines in the archipelago has developed since the beginning of the settlement of the islands. The need for subsistence, ingenuity and the ability of the Azorean man to integrate into the inherited landscape and draw income from it gave rise to a cultural practice, which today is in full growth and which was celebrated in 2004, with the title of Cultural Landscape of Humanity by UNESCO, in the extensive lava fields of Pico Island.The Vineyards Route is the opportunity to experience the history of this culture with about 5 centuries, in manor houses and farmhouses, wineries, cooperatives, portinhos, rola-pipas, corrals, rilheiras, wells, festivities and family practices, as well as to savour its sophisticated modernity with the wine producers of the 3 islands with the Denomination of Origin seal (Pico, Graciosa and Biscoitos in Terceira) and the brand new production territories (São Miguel, Faial and Santa Maria).”