São Jorge is one of the five islands of the central group of the archipelago of the the Azores. It is separated from the island of Pico of only 15 km. Its length is of 55 kilometers and its maximum width is of 7 kilometers. Its surface is of 237.59 km ² and some 10.500 people live there.

The coast of the island is particularly difficult access, the cliffs reaching several hundred meters height per place. Collapses of these cliffs gave rise to low terraces near the sea, called Fajãs in the Azores. Those are particularly fertile and their microclimates allow cultures very varied and exotic, like the coffee on Fajã back Vimes.

The island counts more than two hundred volcanos of basaltic nature, aligned on directed faults north-western south-east. The oldest zone constitutes the complex of Topo and is in the south-east of São Jorge. Radiometric datings confer to him an age ranging between 550.000 years and 110.000 years. The most recent part located at the center of the island includes/understands Pico da Esperança, culminating point to 1053 m, Morro Pelado, Pico C Carvão, Pico das Caldeirinhas etc… The island knew two historical volcanic eruptions, in 1580 and 1808. Ten people were killed in the eruption of 1580 and eight in that of 1808. An underwater eruption was announced to the south-west of the island in 1964.

São Jorge was discovered in 1439, but was populated only twenty years later when colonists resulting from the north of Portugal were established there. The most favorable zones of the island are consisted of Fajãs on the northern coast, from which some were a long time accessible only by the sea. The principal ones are the Fajãs C Ouvidor, of lavic origin, Cubres, Santo Cristo with north and Fajã back Vimes in the south. Fajãs de Cubres and of Santo Cristo are the only places of the Azores containing of the lagoons.

The main resources are the breeding, the culture of cereals and the fruits. The other important productions are sins it, the wool and the cheese dairy. The cheese of the island is most known of the Azores (Queijo de São Jorge) and a big part of its production is exported towards North America in particular.

Administratively, the island is divided into two communes, in the east Calheta, with five localities, and Velas in the west with six localities.