Several buildings were built around the hermitage in Hortas, some of which were rebuilt a few years ago; and in Cruzeiro, which already existed in 1556, where the current hermitage was built in 1739, with the title of Senhor Santo Cristo do Cruzeiro, as it had the same image of Christ on the carved cross, all in a single stone, which existed in the aforementioned 'Cruzeiro'.
The first Franciscans arrived in Terceira around 1456 and from an early age tried to build a hermitage and later, in 1470, a convent. This primitive complex (convent and hermitage) was demolished, giving way to the current, larger and more imposing one. In 1663, when Frei Naranjo gathered the necessary donations for the works, they began. Three years later, the dormitories and workshops were completed and, on March 6, 1666, the first stone of the new temple was solemnly laid.
The church, built by the religious of the Society of Jesus under the invocation of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, is part of the Palace of the Captains-General, and can be visited in the summer, within the palace's museum route.
The church dates to the primitive Chapel of Nossa Senhora da Conceição, built between 1460 and 1474, on the initiative of Álvaro Martins Homem, one of the first settlers of Angra. In the same period, he was also responsible for the construction of the original Hermitage of São Salvador, now the Cathedral.
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