Impérios on Terceira: the painted Holy Spirit chapels and when to see a festival

Drive anywhere on Terceira and you will pass small, brightly painted buildings with a crown or a dove over the door. These are the impérios of the Holy Spirit, and the island has about 70 of them. You can photograph them any day of the year. To see one in use, with the crown on the altar and bread and wine being handed out, you have to be on the island on the right Sunday, so the calendar below matters more than the map.

An império is the house of the Holy Spirit festival in its parish. It keeps the crown, the sceptre and the banner, and it is where the community gathers to share food once the crowning is over. It is not a church: the mass on festival day is said in the parish church, and the império is where the procession ends.

The tourism office of Terceira counts 47 impérios in the municipality of Angra do Heroísmo and 23 in Praia da Vitória. They follow the same plan:

• The front always has three openings, a door and two windows, which stand for the three persons of the Trinity. Many carry a crown, a dove or the year they were built.
• Inside is an altar where the crown is displayed.
• Beside it are one or two outbuildings, the pantries (despensas), where the food is prepared and the festival things are stored.

The early ones were wooden structures, dressed with branches and cloth and taken down after the festival. Stone impérios only appeared in the second half of the 19th century, many paid for with money sent home by emigrants. That is why most of the ones you see date from the late 1800s or later.

The Holy Spirit season starts on the first Sunday after Easter and runs for the following Sundays, with the two big days at Pentecost and Trinity Sunday, the "bodo Sundays". On Terceira it does not stop there: individual impérios hold their festivals through the summer, and the tourism office counts the season as running until São Carlos in Angra at the end of September.

For 2027, Easter falls on 28 March, so:

• the season opens on Sunday 4 April 2027,
• Pentecost is Sunday 16 May 2027,
• Trinity Sunday is Sunday 23 May 2027.

We worked those dates out from the church calendar. Each império sets its own programme, so check the parish (junta de freguesia) or the Explore Terceira listings for the year before you plan around one.

The tourism listings give festival dates for each império but no visiting hours, so outside a festival plan to look at them from the street.

The core of the day is the coronation. A procession, usually with the parish band, walks from the house of that year's "emperor" to the church. After mass the priest places the crown on the head of the person being crowned while the Veni Creator Spiritus is sung. The procession then goes back to the império.

Then comes the bodo, or função: the shared meal. Terceira's tourism office is explicit that everyone is invited, rich and poor, locals and strangers. The traditional menu is Holy Spirit soup, alcatra (beef rump slow-cooked in a clay pot), bread, sweet bread (massa sovada) or rosquilhas, and wine. Bread and wine are blessed and handed out at the império itself.

If you are offered food, accept it, eat what you are given and say thank you. Keep back from the procession route, ask before photographing people close up, and wait to be waved in rather than walking into the império on your own. Several of the summer and September festivals end with a tourada à corda, a bull on a rope in the street; if you stay for that, watch from behind a wall or a doorway.

The years are construction dates from the official listings.

• Império do Outeiro, Angra do Heroísmo (1670). In the parish of Nossa Senhora da Conceição, and the oldest on the island, with royal recognition from King José. Its festival is in July and finishes with a bullfight.
• Império de São Carlos, São Pedro, Angra do Heroísmo (1814). At Caminho do Meio de São Carlos 78. It was founded after a volcanic crisis in 1761 that people believed the Holy Spirit had spared them from. The coronation is on the last weekend of September, the festival lasts eight to nine days, and the tourism office treats it as the end of the island's Holy Spirit season.
• Império da Praça Velha, Biscoitos (1872). On Largo Francisco Maria Brum in Biscoitos, so it combines with the natural pools and the wine museum. Festival on Pentecost and Trinity Sundays, with the procession, the coronation mass, the blessing of bread and wine and the função lunch.
• Império da Vila das Lajes (1916). On the church square in Lajes, founded by 37 residents of the village, with iron railings across the front. Festival on Pentecost and Trinity Sundays. Lajes and neighbouring Vila Nova are in the Ramo Grande, the eastern plain the tourism office names as a stronghold of the tradition.
• Império da Caridade, Praia da Vitória (1941). On Largo das Figueiras do Paim in the parish of Santa Cruz, in the town. Its festival starts on the last Sunday of September with a procession to the church of Santa Cruz and a coronation mass, runs to the following Thursday, and usually ends with a bullfight on the Saturday after.

Almost every village has at least one império, so any drive round the island passes dozens. If you want to see a few on purpose:

• In Angra, the Outeiro and São Carlos impérios are both in the city's own parishes, so they fit a day based in the old town.
• On the east side, Lajes, Vila Nova and Praia da Vitória are close together, so you can see several on the way between the airport and the town.

For the story behind them, Explore Terceira's Holy Spirit route also suggests the exhibition on the cult of the Holy Spirit at the Angra do Heroísmo Museum, and the 18th-century altar of the Descent of the Holy Spirit in the Misericórdia church in Angra. Check the museum's current hours before you go.

Can you go inside an império?

During its festival, yes: the doors are open and the crown is on the altar. Outside festival weeks we found no published visiting hours, so expect to see them from outside.

When is the best time to see a Holy Spirit festival on Terceira?

Pentecost and Trinity Sunday, which in 2027 are 16 and 23 May. Single impérios also hold festivals through the summer, ending with São Carlos in Angra at the end of September.

Do visitors really get fed at the bodo?

The tradition is that everyone is welcome, locals and strangers. Accept what is offered politely and do not push into the queue for a second round.

Which império is the oldest?

The Império do Outeiro in Angra do Heroísmo, built in 1670.