page_title: Maia (Ribeira Grande)
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Maia (Ribeira Grande) / History
caption_attribution_description: Português: Plantação de Chá Gorreana, Camellia sinensis, Ribeira Grande, ilha de São Miguel, Açores
context_page_description: Maia is a civil parish in the municipality of Ribeira Grande in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. The population in 2011 was 1,900, in an area of 21.97 km². Maia is the largest parish by area in Ribeira Grande.
context_section_description: The first Azorean historians referred to this parish, owing to the settlement of Inês da Maia, a noblewoman that established a home here in the 15th century.
  The settlement of the community dates back to the early settlement of Ribeira Grande; the construction of the main church was begun at the end of the 15th century. By 1522, it had its third vicar.  Maia became one of the northern coasts more rapidly growing places: one hundred years after its foundation it had become a civil parish. Its fertile terrains, one of the more productive on the island of São Miguel, and its port access, meant that small industry developed easily in this area. In particular, the tobacco, tea and cement industries developed over the course of the next centuries. Maia was also the location and headquarters for one of the first passenger transport companies on the island.
  The parochial church was dedicated to the Holy Spirit in 1812, constructed after a 16th-century chapel, and expanded in 17th and 18th centuries. The Solar do Lalém, constructed at the end of the 19th century, with chapel and 18th-century portal.
  In the area of Gorreana, thus named for the fact that the first resident was a man named Gorreana or gorro de Ana, who owned a tea plantation, a rare thing in Europe. This area is also the location of the Chapel of Nossa Senhora do Resgate (Portuguese: Ermida de Nossa Senhora do Resgate), from the 18th century, constructed with a decorative facade by the local farmers. In its interior, azulejos were assembled on the altar with a medallion and the patron saint in the same decoration.
  In the area of Lombinha da Maia, named for its location on a small hill/escarpment (Portuguese: lombinha), a small chapel was constructed in 1896, to the invocation of Nossa Senhora das Dores. Later it was adapted, with a baptistery and sacristy to support the parishioners.
  On 27 October 1919, a commission was installed to establish a religious Brotherhood, dedicated to the Holy Spirit of Maia (Portuguese: Santa Casa do Divino Espírito Santo da Maia) was convened. In 1943, the group erected a cornerstone for the local hospital, inaugurated on 24 September 1944. With the acquisition of the local pharmacy in 1946, the Santa Casa supported the population from Porto Formoso until Fenais da Ajuda.
  The first male school was created in 1860, and later another schoolhouse dedicated to female students was established in 1877, eventually resulting in the development of the first primary school in January 1890. These schools were installed in private residences, which were later substituted by centenary schools, as part of centenary build programs at the turn of the century, opening on 1 December 1951. In 2000, Maia inaugurated a new EB2/3 secondary school to support the regional population.
caption: The tea fields in the foothills of Gorreana, established in the 18th century: the only European region to support tea production
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