Vila do Corvo

Vila do Corvo (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈkoɾvu]) is the smallest municipality in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores, constituting the island of Corvo in its entirety. With a population of 430 in 2011, it is the least populated of the Portuguese municipalities, and the only Portuguese municipality, by law, without a civil parish (freguesia, the smallest administrative unit in Portugal). Its area is 17.11 km².

Vila do Corvo, has at times been wrongly referred to as Vila Nova do Corvo. The village, the unique agglomeration on the island of Corvo, is constructed of small homes located along narrow roadways and alleys rising along the hills of the southern one-third of the island. The coastal area of the village is dominated by the Corvo Aerodrome and ports linking the community to the outside world.

History

The history of the Azores is linked to non-official exploration during the period of the late 13th century in maps, such as the Genoese Atlas Medici (1351). Although it did not specify an island of Corvo, the Medici Atlas did refer to an Insula Corvi Marini (Island of the Marine Crow), in a seven-island archipelago. A later Mapa Catalão, from Spain, referred to two islands of Corvo and Flores in 1375.