Angra do Heroísmo, on Terceira Island in the Azores, was the first city in the Portuguese Atlantic to receive a royal charter, granted by King Manuel I in 1534. Its historic center was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1983 — one of the earliest Portuguese sites to receive that designation — largely on the strength of its Renaissance urban grid, which survived intact while Lisbon's medieval fabric was obliterated in the 1755 earthquake. This coin is part of INCM's ongoing municipal heritage series, which documented Portuguese UNESCO sites throughout the early 2000s.
Angra do Heroísmo, on Terceira Island in the Azores, was the first city in the Portuguese Atlantic to receive a royal charter, granted by King Manuel I in 1534. Its historic center was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1983 — one of the earliest Portuguese sites to receive that designation — largely on the strength of its Renaissance urban grid, which survived intact while Lisbon's medieval fabric was obliterated in the 1755 earthquake. This coin is part of INCM's ongoing municipal heritage series, which documented Portuguese UNESCO sites throughout the early 2000s.