Lagoa Stadium

Lagoa (Portuguese pronunciation: [lɐˈɣo.ɐ] (listen); Portuguese for lagoon) is a municipality in the southwestern part of Sao Miguel Island in the Azores. The population in 2011 was 14,442, in an area of 45.59 km². Lagoa is located east of Ponta Delgada, the island capital.

History

The area of Lagoa was settled just after the first colonists came to the island of Sao Miguel, and its first inhabitants established their homes in the areas that would eventually form the villages of Lagoa and Agua de Pau. It is believed that early settlers chose the area for its sheltered bay, which was necessary for their loading and unloading of cargo, livestock and provisions. The Porto dos Carneiros was one of these areas, so named for the fact that sheep, as well as other animals, were offloaded within its cove. The celebrated Portuguese historian, Father Gaspar Frutuoso referred to Lagoa, in the way that the first settlers named it, a name that was dependent on where they made their homes:

“The village of Lagoa, called this owing to the existence of a "lake in front" of the doors to the Church (a reef) and its port where [it was large enough for ships] to battle, where in the past there were large catches of fish, since the ocean would enter it, and the livestock would drink from its waters and others would pass time swimming in its waters."

It was in the area of the Church of Santa Cruz that most of these original founders established their homes, near an ancient lake (long since dried up). In the 15th Century, the island of Sao Miguel continued to receive settlers and in Lagoa those colonists steadily settled farther to the west, around the bay that became known as Porto dos Carneiros, where fishing began to take on an important aspect of the local economy. To the east of the village of Lagoa, several families established agrarian settlements in the vicinity of Agua de Pau.

Around 1515, due to its social and economic growth the village of Agua de Pau was elevated to