Terra do Baptista

An inhabited locality (sítio) in the parish (freguesia) of Porto da Cruz (‘harbour of the cross’), with 105 foros and 651 inhabitants. There was once a chapel there dedicated to Nossa Senhora da Fé (Our Lady of Faith), founded in 1826 by the holder of the entail (morgado) Diogo Dias de Orneias e Vasconcelos. There was also a chapel there dedicated to St Anthony of Padua (Santo António), belonging to the Nunes Caldeira family and founded around 1760. This locality belonged to the entailed estate (morgadio) founded by the Genoese João Baptista of the Italian Usodimare family, who married a child of the first donatary (donatário) of Machico, Tristão Vaz Teixeira; its last representative was João Bettencourt Baptista.