[38 ° 34'37 "N, 28 ° 42'10" W]
The island of Faial is located at the western end of the Central Group of the Azores archipelago, separated from the island of Pico by a narrow sea arm of 8.3 km wide, known as the Faial channel.

 

The island has the approximate shape of an irregular pentagon, 21 km long in the east-west direction and a maximum width of 14 km, corresponding to an area of ​​172.43 km². With a population of 15 063 inhabitants (2001), most of which in Horta, the city where the Azorean parliament is located.

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Named "Ventura Island" in the old letters and portulans, and "island of S. Luís" at the time of its discovery by Portuguese navigators, it had as its first inhabitant, the legend says, a hermit who took refuge there from the world. Later on, Josse van Hurtere, a rich Flemish noble, disembarks in the island, inhabited by settlers from Portugal. With the intercession of the Duchess of Burgundy, daughter of King John I, he obtained the charter of the island's grantee in 1468 and the right to bring more settlers from Flanders. These settle in the parish of Flamengos, named after its first settlers, and later in the area of ​​Horta. By then the island thrives on agriculture and the export of pastel dye plant.

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Horta Port was an important link for sea and air (seaplanes) routes and in the North Atlantic submarine cable connections, maintaining a relevant activity as a commercial port and yacht stopover for transatlantic crossings.

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The island is locally known as Blue Island, a designation that was popularized Raul Brandão's description in "The Unknown Islands".

The inhabitants of Faial are called "Faialenses".