Santa Clara () is a civil parish in the municipality of Ponta Delgada (São Miguel) in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores. The population in 2011 was 2,971, in an area of 2.24 km². History When Vila Franca do Campo was the principal centre of São Miguel, the area known as Ponta Delgada was the beginning of a vast hunting area populated by numerous "wild" mountain pigs. At the edge of this region, was the homestead of Francisco Ramalho, and was considered a starting point for huntsmen from Vila Franca. This embryonic site became the foundation of the village of Santa Clara; it was an important reference in the southwest part of the island, a determinant factor in the location and orography of the locality, combined with a cove and stone beach that later became known as "Ponta Delgada". The long, narrow basalt promontory, helped to protect the area from the undulation of Atlantic swells known as the Cunhal da Maré. The promontory helped to create a protected anchorage, that was absent along the coast until Vila Franca in the west. Many of the huntsmen that accompanied the noblemen from Vila Franca would eventually settle along the routes, creating a small nucleus. alongside farmers and fisherman. With the growing settlement came the influence of the Church. After the construction of a temple in honour of the Franciscan Order of Poor Clares the area began to be referred to as Santa Clara. The small hermitage, its date of construction nor its location, are still unknown, apart from this reference: In addition, a short distance from the fortress to the west, is a small point called "Ponta dos Algares"...and then a small sandy bay, fronting the houses of the generous and in all things grandioso Francisco Arruda da Costa...and in great cost his walls and corbels, with his date to the sea, everything quite defensible and placed with the gate called "Santa Clara", because there existed the parochial church of this Saint. At the time, and before it was partially destroyed by the installation of a railline to support the construction of the port, the eastern cove of Ponta Delgada was far deeper, and was situated by Gaspar Frutuoso. The temple, as Frutuoso explained, existed since 1522, and was implanted a short distance from the current church. The reference to a pebble beach, in the bay [of Ponta dos Alagres], situated in