Horta old town walk: the Jesuit college, the clock tower, Carmo and the cable buildings

Most visitors to Horta see the marina, Peter Café Sport and the painted quay wall, then drive out to Capelinhos. The town behind the waterfront gets a glance from the car. That is a pity, because Horta packs three centuries of buildings into a few streets: a Jesuit college that became the parish church, a clock tower left standing when its church was pulled down, a Carmelite convent on the hill, and the offices and houses of the telegraph companies that turned this small port into a relay station for transatlantic messages.

This walk takes half a day at an easy pace, mostly on foot from the waterfront. Below is what to look at, in an order that saves climbing, and what you can and cannot get into.

You need nothing but comfortable shoes. The waterfront is flat; Carmo and the streets behind the college climb, and some are steep and cobbled. Allow two to three hours with stops, more if you go into the Horta Museum.

The churches have no published visiting hours. They open for services, and a door is sometimes open during the day, so plan to see the façades and step inside when you can. The clock tower and the museum do publish hours, which are given below.

Start on the waterfront at the fort, the obvious stone walls on the edge of the bay. It dates from the 16th century and was built of basalt and tuff to defend the anchorage against pirates. Only the outer walls and a 17th-century chapel of Santo António survive from the original. The fort was classified a National Monument in 1947 and is now the Pousada Forte da Horta, a hotel, so you see it from the outside unless you are staying or eating there.

Walk inland from the fort to Largo Duque d'Ávila e Bolama and you face the most imposing building in town. The Jesuits built their college church in the late 17th century and started the college beside it in 1719. The order was expelled from Portugal in the 18th century, and in 1825 the old college church became the Igreja Matriz do Santíssimo Salvador, Horta's main parish church, which it still is.

The two wings now have other jobs. The city council sits in the north building and the Horta Museum in the south one. The church interior is the reason to go in if you find it open, with gilded Baroque woodcarving and tile panels. For the museum's collections and opening days, see the rainy-day guide to Horta's museums.

A few steps from the college, beside the Jardim Florêncio Terra, stands the Torre do Relógio. It looks like a bell tower without a church, which is what it is. Horta's first parish church dated from the early 16th century; the tower was added to its south side between 1700 and 1720, and the clock mechanism is from 1747. When the parish moved into the Jesuit church in 1825, the old church was demolished and the tower was kept.

You can go up. Explore Faial lists access on weekdays from 09:30 to 12:00 and from 13:00 to 16:30, closed at weekends (listing checked in October 2026; confirm locally). From the top you look over the roofs of Horta to the bay and across to Pico and São Jorge.

Now the climb. The Carmelite church stands on the hill above the town centre, on the site of a mid-17th-century chapel to Nossa Senhora da Boa Nova. Work on the present church began in 1698, the main building was finished in 1751 and the façade in 1797, so you are looking at a century of building in one front. Look for the white walls framed in dark basalt, the two bell towers and the curved crest on top. The convent buildings are attached at the side. Come up for the façade and the view back down over the town and the bay; the walk is short but steep.

Impérios are the small chapels used for the Holy Spirit festivities, and you find them all over the Azores. Horta's Império dos Nobres was built in the mid-18th century in memory of the 1672 eruption that struck Praia do Norte, on the other side of the island, and it is described as the first império on Faial built of stone and lime. It stands in the central Matriz parish and is small and easy to walk past, so mark it on your map before you set off.

The other history in these streets is the telegraph. In 1893 the first telegraph cable reached Horta from Carcavelos near Lisbon. By 1928 fifteen submarine cables came ashore here, linking the island to England, the United States, Canada, Ireland, France, Cape Verde, Italy and Germany, and British, American and German companies kept staff on Faial for decades. The last foreign company closed in 1969. Their buildings are still in use:

• Trinity House, built in 1902, held three companies under one roof: the British Europe and Azores Telegraph Company, the German Deutsch-Atlantische Telegraphengesellschaft and the American Commercial Cable Company. It is now the António José de Ávila primary school.
• The German Colony, built in 1919, is a group of five houses for the German company's staff, including the Casa do Relógio. Azores regional government departments use them today.
• The Western Union building is now the Faial Resort Hotel.

These are working buildings, not museums, so you see them from the street; mark them on a map before you go. The waterfront side of the story, the marina and Peter Café Sport, is in the guide to Horta's marina.

Back in the centre, these buildings date from the cable decades and the years just before them:

• Sociedade Amor da Pátria: a society founded on 28 November 1859, whose present Art Deco building opened on 30 June 1934. It was designed by Joaquim Norte Júnior and has hydrangea motifs in the decoration and dragon trees outside.
• Teatro Faialense: Horta's first theatre opened in 1856, and the present building dates from 1916.
• Igreja da Conceição: the old church was destroyed by the earthquake of 31 August 1926. The foundation stone of the Art Deco church that replaced it was laid in 1933.
• The former Banco de Portugal, opened in 1935, also Art Deco and now the Banco de Artistas cultural venue.
• Café Internacional, founded in 1926, which has work by the modernist painter Almada Negreiros.

Finish at the southern end of town with the Angústias church. Its story starts with a 15th-century chapel built by Faial's first donatary captain; a new church followed at the end of the 17th century, and the present building is from the early 19th century. From here Porto Pim and Monte da Guia are a short walk further south, if you want to end the day with a swim or the whaling factory.

A practical order is: fort, college and Matriz, clock tower, Carmo, then back down through the 20th-century centre to Angústias. That keeps the one real climb in the middle of the walk. On a weekday morning you can fit the clock tower in before the lunch closure. With a car, the rest of the island fits in the afternoon; the Capelinhos and Caldeira guide covers the drive west.

Can you go up the clock tower in Horta?

Yes. In October 2026 Explore Faial listed access Monday to Friday, 09:30 to 12:00 and 13:00 to 16:30, closed at weekends. Confirm locally, as hours change.

Which is the main church in Horta?

The Igreja Matriz do Santíssimo Salvador, which has occupied the church of the former Jesuit college since 1825. The council and the Horta Museum share the college buildings beside it.

How long does a walk round old Horta take?

Two to three hours at an easy pace, longer if you visit the museum. The waterfront is flat; the streets up to the Carmo church are steep.

Where can you see Horta's cable history?

From the street: Trinity House, now a primary school, the German Colony houses, now government offices, and the former Western Union building, now a hotel. Fifteen cables came ashore at Horta by 1928.

• Explore Faial: early Horta, the origins
• Explore Faial: Torre do Relógio
• Explore Faial: the submarine cables
• Explore Faial: Horta and the submarine cables, a cosmopolitan era
• Explore Faial: Horta Museum
• Pousadas de Portugal: Pousada Forte da Horta