Jardim da República

The land which now holds the  Jardim da República was yielded by João Soares de Albergaria de Sousa (liberal president of the City Council of Velas, 1796-1875). It was a walled farm, with a high house and an orange plantation. Between 1867 and 1870, the land was forestated. The most magnificent tree of that set is an araucaria, which reached monumental proportions, but which was, in 1898, cut, replaced by a bandstand; the current bandstand is a replica of the original one. This bandstand, built in 1898, during the reign of Charles I of Portugal, was, early one, the stage of cultural activities, namely music concerts.

The Garden of the Praça da República [Square of the Republic] occupies the main square of the village of Velas, a location where, in the past, the local market was set. The regularization of the old square and its adaptation to a garden began in 1836, when the City Council of Velas issued a deliberation on the urban arrangement of that space. This document bound “the municipality’s pigs to wear a nose ring and not cross the square”. Then, in the mid-century, trees were planted; in 1899, the lights were placed; the flower beds arrangements and other decorations in burnt stone, as well as the walls and railings date back from the beginning of the 20th century.