page_title: Vila Franca do Campo
section_title: Geography
hierarchical_section_title: Vila Franca do Campo / Geography
caption_attribution_description: Português: Lagoa do Congro, Ilha de São Miguel, Arquipélago dos, Açores, Portugal.
context_page_description: Vila Franca do Campo is a town and municipality in the southern part of the island of São Miguel in the Portuguese Autonomous Region of the Azores. The population of the municipality was 11,229 in 2011, in an area of 77.97 km². The town proper, which incorporates the urbanized parishes São Miguel and São Pedro, has 4100 inhabitants.
context_section_description: Vila Franca do Campo Municipality is located east of Ponta Delgada via the Regional E.R.1-1ª roadway, while it is linked by mountain roads to the eastern and northern communities (including Lagoa, Furnas and Povoação). Most of the mountainous areas of the municipality are forested, interspersed with pasturelands and fields dedicated to agriculture and grazing.
  The climate in this region is mild and humid, with temperatures oscillating between 14 °C (57 °F) and 22 °C (72 °F), and with regular precipitation, responsible for the fertile soils and ravines. These ravines that cross the municipality include the Ribeira da s Três Voltas, Ribeira da Praia and Ribeira da Mãe d'Água.
  The relief of this region is characterized by basaltic rock and projectiles from volcanic activities on the island, forming many of the distinctive geomorophological structures, such as: the islet of Vila Franca, Pico d'El-Rei (674 m), Monte Escuro (890 m), Lombados Pisões (258 m), Miradouro (685 m), Lagoa do Fogo and  Ponta da Pirâmide.
  Administratively, the six parishes of Vila Franca do Campo Municipality include:
  Água de Alto, the 1624 resident population (2001 Census), located on the western border of the municipality is known for the beaches and coves that hug the coast; initially a settlement of thirty homes in the 15th century, it was a locality within the civil parish of São Pedro until 1908, when it was deannexed from the local administrative authority and incorporated;
  Ponta Garça, the largest within Vila Franca, and longest by extension in the Azores, Ponta Garça includes a population of 3577 inhabitants located along a lateral roadway that hugs the clifftops of the south-central region to the small fajãs/beaches of Povoação;
  Ribeira das Tainhas, with 782 residents, the smallest parish in area, it was historically an agricultural centre involved in the cultivation and exportation of oranges and wine, through the Porto de Calhau de Areia;
  Ribeira Seca
  São Miguel
  São Pedro
caption: A view of the Lagoa da Congro, a volcanic lake that marks the interior of the municipality
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