Ribeira Chã is a civil parish in the municipality of Lagoa in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. It is located along a cliff that overlooks the Atlantic Ocean. The population in 2011 was 396, in an area of 2.50 km<sup>2</sup>. Ribeira Chã is the smallest parish by population and area in the municipality of Lagoa.
History
Ribeira Chã, or Ribeira das Lagens (as it was known), was a short distance between Falcão da Ribeira do Pisão and the western edge of Vila Franca do Campo. The first person registered by Gaspar Frutuoso to reside in this zone was Melchior Dias (sometime in the late 15th century), who married Brioljana Cabral, daughter of Isabel Nunes Velha (who was the great-granddaughter of the illustrious discoverer Gonçalo Velho Cabral, Commander of Almourol and Master of Pias. Melchior Dias was son-in-law of Isabel Nunes Velha and her husband Fernão Vaz Pacheco, who was the nephew of Nuno Velho, who had arrived with his uncle (Velho Cabral) at the settlement of Santa Maria. Velho Cabral had hoped to obtain the captaincy of São Miguel for Nuno Velho, but the Infante Henry decided in favour of Velho Cabral's other nephew João Soares de Albergaria.
Regardless, Melchior and Briolanja, had a daughter Mécia Cabral who married the licentiate Sebastião Pimentel, man of letters and virtues and had children. Sebastião Pimentel was the son of the sheriff of São Miguel, Domingos Afonso Pimentel. Melchior Dias also had a son, Fernão Vaz Pacheco (inheriting his name from his maternal grandfather), who married Leonor Medeiros, niece of Lopo Anes de Araújo, of an old, wealthy and privileged family from Viana do Castelo, arriving on São Miguel in 1506. Leonor Medeiros was the daughter of António Furtado de Sousa, a descendant of the noble families Correia, Sousa and Furtado, from the island of Madeira and great-granddaughter of a Fleming, named Solanda Lopes. Frutuoso, also mentioned Gaspar Dias from Ribeira Chã, who was a relative of Melchior, a son-in-law of Luís Mendes Potas (also known as Luís Vaz de Lordêlo, "o Potas"). Gaspar had three children, two boys that went to the Spanish Indies and a daughter, Crisóstoma de Lordêlo (who married Gonçalo Coelho, son of Gabriel Coelho the owner of a sugar-processing machine in Ribeira Seca, Vila Franca which was transferred to Lopo Anes de Araújo. Most of these settlers were related by blood, business or other activities.
The area obtained its name from the ravine that runs alongside the valley and flows to the sea, through a grotto of cliffs and rocky crags.
Until the 17th century, it was a small locality known as a hunting ground for Guinea fowl, and where few settled, owing to difficult accessibility. Those who did settle in the hilltop plain were primarily dedicated to hunting and the woad industry, which is an important economic activity in the Azores until the 15th and 16th century.
Architecture
- Church of São José (), a modernist church by architect Read Texeira, constructed on an elevated platform, once occupied for 111 years by smaller hermitage.
Culture
The church and the local ethnography museums offer glimpses into the cultural life of this agrarian society, that includes a children's garden, multi-purpose sports gymnasium, children's recreational center and seniors center.