Graciosa's Holy Spirit impérios: a self-guided route through Santa Cruz, Praia, Luz and Guadalupe

Drive round Graciosa and you keep passing the same kind of building: a small, white, single-room chapel with a carved crown over the door, usually on a corner or a little square. These are the impérios, and each one belongs to a village brotherhood of the Holy Spirit. They are not churches, and for most of the year their doors stay shut. They are still a good way to read the island's villages: each parish built its own, and the style changes with the decade.

This guide strings seven of them into a half-day drive. They are the seven recorded in the Azores' regional heritage inventory, with the dates carved on their façades. The island has more, so treat the list as a starting point.

An império keeps the objects of the Holy Spirit cult: the crown, the banner and the staffs carried in procession. On Graciosa, as on the other islands, the parishes hold their festas after Easter and around Pentecost. A crown is carried in procession, there is a crowning, and the brotherhood shares out bread, meat and wine. The order of events varies from one village to the next. The meal at the centre of it, the Holy Spirit soup, is covered in what to eat on Graciosa.

In 2027, Pentecost Sunday falls on 16 May and Trinity Sunday on 23 May. Each village sets its own festa Sundays around those dates, so ask in the village or at your lodging once you arrive.

Outside the festas, plan to see the impérios from the street. None of the sources we checked gives visiting hours, and they are brotherhood buildings, not museums.

Start in the island's main town. The Império do Rebentão stands at the top of a sloping stretch of road in the Rebentão district. Five curved steps lead up to the door, the windows have wooden balustrades with small panels painted yellow and red, and the trim is blue. Look at the roof ridge: three ceramic doves sit along it. The date over the door is 1905.

The Império das Fontes, on the Caminho das Fontes, has no date on it. The inventory places it in the 19th or early 20th century. It sits behind a small walled forecourt, a dove stands on its cornice, and below the carved crown there is a round clock, which none of the others has. The Museu da Graciosa runs a traditional mill in Fontes as one of its outlying sections, so you can combine the two; see Santa Cruz da Graciosa on foot.

Santa Cruz parish has at least three more impérios, at Dores, Santo Amaro and Funchais. The one at Dores stands next to the chapel of Nossa Senhora das Dores. If you have time, look for them on the way out of town.

Drive south-east to Praia (São Mateus), on the east coast. The Império de Nossa Senhora da Guia stands on a corner near the harbour, where Rua da Arrochela meets Travessa da Guia. It is the most unusual of the seven: its front curves outward beyond the line of the street, in three sections with stone pinnacles, and a niche above the door holds a Holy Spirit dove. The date is 1912. Inside, according to the inventory, the wooden ceiling is wavy so that it clears the windows, with a crown painted in the middle.

A few streets away on Rua Dr. Manuel Sousa Menezes, the Império de Nossa Senhora dos Remédios looks nothing like it. It was built in 1933 to replace an old hermitage, in the plain, blocky style of 1930s modernism, with every ledge and lintel pushed out from the wall. The bell opening at the top has no bell. It faces a small open square.

While you are in Praia, the beach, the seabird islet and the bakery that makes the queijadas are all a short walk away: see Praia on Graciosa.

Continue round the south to Luz. Its império is on Largo 1º de Dezembro, in the middle of the village. It is square in plan, with three steps up, a curved pediment with a crown on top, and two pairs of windows either side of the door. The trim and pinnacles are painted blue. A tile plaque between the door and the cornice reads, in Portuguese, "Brotherhood of the Divine Holy Spirit of Luz, inaugurated in 1928". Inside, the inventory notes a simple altarpiece of blue-painted wood.

This is also where the island's easiest walk starts. The Baía da Folga trail (PR03GRA) leaves from the centre of Luz near the império and runs 2.1 km down through the vineyards to a small harbour; details in walking on Graciosa.

Drive north-west to Guadalupe. The Império de Guadalupe stands at a crossroads near the parish church, on the Caminho da Igreja. Its date, 1896, makes it the oldest dated império of the seven. Three steps lead up to a pointed-arch door with a window on either side, a stone urn tops each corner, and the crown above the date is carved in high relief.

Carry on to the Beira-Mar da Vitória, near the north-west coast. The império here is dated 1918 and is the plainest of the set: one door, a crown, a cartouche with the year, and a bare room inside with a single niche. What makes it worth the stop is the building beside it, a wine cellar that the inventory suggests may once have been the império's despensa, its storehouse. A later garage spoils the view a little.

Vitória has a third império, Santo António da Vitória, and two more reasons to stop. The church of Santo António was built between 1904 and 1907 with money sent by emigrants in Brazil and North America. The hermitage of Nossa Senhora das Vitórias dates from 1623 and commemorates the islanders' victory over Barbary pirates on 19 May of that year.

• Go by car. The route crosses all four parishes, and the island's few buses will not get you round it in half a day. Getting around Graciosa has the options.
• The order above runs clockwise from Santa Cruz: south-east to Praia, west to Luz, north-west to Guadalupe and Vitória, then back across to Santa Cruz.
• These are brotherhood buildings in the middle of villages. Park where you are not blocking a doorway, and ask before photographing people during a festa.
• The inventory descriptions date from a survey in 2004. Paint colours change and buildings get restored, so details may differ.

What is an império on Graciosa? A small chapel that belongs to a village brotherhood of the Holy Spirit. It keeps the crown, banner and staffs used in the festas after Easter and around Pentecost.

Can I go inside an império? Usually not outside the festas. We found no visiting hours for any of them, so plan to see them from the street.

When are the Holy Spirit festas on Graciosa in 2027? Pentecost Sunday is 16 May 2027 and Trinity Sunday 23 May 2027. Each village sets its own festa Sundays around them, so ask locally.

Which is the oldest império on the route? Guadalupe, dated 1896. The newest is Nossa Senhora dos Remédios in Praia, dated 1933.