Fajã Grande

Fajã Grande is a rural civil parish in the municipality of Lajes das Flores in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. The population in 2011 was 202, in an area of 12.97 km². Although it is a relatively small population, it is one of the largest centers in the municipality of Lajes das Flores, about 17 kilometres from the municipal seat, and the westernmost settlement in Europe. It contains the localities Cuada, Ponta and Fajã.

The western coast of Flores was slowly occupied in the middle of the 16th Century, with the first population centers forming in the beginning of the 17th Century. The first settlers were captained by João Soares, from the island of São Miguel, and who settled in Lajedo. The fertile land permitted the cultivation of woad, one of the most important commercial ventures in the Azores. As the Azorean chronicler Father Gaspar Frutuoso writing in the 16th Century, indicated, that the colonists benefited from the abundance of water and easy access to the sea:

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