Sete Cidades

Inside the great caldera at the western end of São Miguel, the village of Sete Cidades sits at the water’s edge of two lakes — one blue, one green — under the walls of a volcanic crater a few kilometres across. The view over the pair, from the Vista do Rei viewpoint on the crater rim, is the single most famous image of the Azores — and the waters have their own page at the Lagoa das Sete Cidades. The village below is where walkers and paddlers finish their day.

Blue tears, green tears

The two lakes, joined at the neck by a bridge, carry the best-loved legend of the islands: a blue-eyed princess and a green-eyed shepherd who could not marry, and whose tears at parting — hers blue, his green — filled the two waters. Science gives the colours less romantic parents, in depth and algae, and the caldera was voted among Portugal’s Seven Natural Wonders in 2012.

The village under the rim

The village itself is quiet: a neogothic church of São Nicolau from the mid-nineteenth century, traditional houses with their stilted granaries along the shore of the Lagoa Azul, and the drainage tunnel of the 1930s that tamed the lagoon’s levels. The trail from the Vista do Rei descends the crater wall to the village in a couple of hours, and kayak and paddleboard rentals work from the shore.

What to see

• The Vista do Rei viewpoint over the twin lakes
• The Lagoa Azul and Lagoa Verde and their bridge
• The neogothic church of São Nicolau
• The trail down the crater wall to the village
• The kayaks and paddleboards on the lagoon

Practical information

Sete Cidades lies about thirty-six kilometres west of Ponta Delgada, on the rim road of the caldera, across the island from the Furnas Valley. The weather turns quickly on the rim: bring a rain layer even in summer, and check the official websites before setting out.

Image credit: Blue and Green Lakes – Vista do Rei, Azores by Sergey Ashmarin — CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

For the twin lakes themselves, see Lagoa das Sete Cidades.