Pico Alto

Pico Alto
	View of the Pico Alto
height	587 m
location	Santa Maria , Azores , Portugal
Dominance	85.7 km → Cedros , São Miguel
Notch height	587 m
Coordinates	36 ° 59 ′ 0 ″ N , 25 ° 5 ′ 26 ″ W Coordinates: 36 ° 59 ′ 0 ″ N , 25 ° 5 ′ 26 ″ W

The Pico Alto ("High Mountain") is the highest point on the Azores island of Santa Maria . It is located in the municipality of Santa Bárbara in the district of Vila do Porto .

Morphologically, the mountain belongs to a small mountain range that runs in the central part of Santa Maria in a north-south direction and marks the border between a hilly, humid east and a largely flat and dry west part of the island. The Pico Alto is of volcanic origin. It originated in the Lower Pliocene 4 to 5 million years ago. The volcanic activity ended on Santa Maria 2 million years ago. The island is still standing out now.

Coming from the south, an asphalt road leads on the eastern slope of Pico Alto to the saddle north of the summit and continues as a gravel road on the west side. There are abandoned and dilapidated casemates of the Portuguese army . The viewing platform on the summit can be easily reached on foot from the saddle and offers a view of most of the island. There are numerous communication antennas immediately south of the summit.

Antennas on the summit
View of the west of Santa Maria
View to the east
former casemates

A 121 hectare area around the summit of Pico Alto is designated as a protected area of IUCN category IV ( biotope and species protection area ). Here you can find remnants of the laurel forest that used to dominate the Azores with endemic plants such as the Azores laurel , the Azores holly , the Azores bilberry , the Azores picconia , the Azores tree heather , the orchid Platanthera micrantha and a local species of snowball . However, the area also has a great diversity of molluscs, insects and spiders. The beetles Athous pomboi , Donus multifidus , Tarphius pomboi and Tarphius serranoi should be mentioned . Artenreich for the Azores is the bird life with the azorenanischen variations of the chaffinch , the wagtail , the robin , the blackbird , the Kanarengirlitzes , the blackcap and the Winter Gold cockerel .

The Pico Alto is well integrated into the network of hiking trails in Santa Maria. Both the third stage GR03SMA “Norte – Bananeiras” of the large island trail and the PRC2SMA “Pico Alto” trail lead over its summit.

On February 8, 1989, an Independent Air Boeing 707-331B crashed at Pico Alto. The charter plane was on the way from Bergamo to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic . The 137 Italian passengers and the 7 crew members lost their lives in the accident. A memorial at the end of the asphalt road commemorates the disaster and lists the names of the victims. On the gravel road there are more memorial stones and plaques in Portuguese, Italian and English, as well as a stone cross.