Jácome de Bruges

Jacome de Bruges was a wealthy Flemish merchant in the service of Prince Henry the Navigator who initiated the Portuguese Age of Discovery.

He was born as Jacob von Brugge in a wealthy merchant family in Bruges involved in the trade between Bruges and Portugal. Around 1438 Jacob left Bruges and started to trade in Ourense, a province of northwestern Spain where he spent the next 11 years. In 1450, Prince Henry had allowed Jacob to organize the settlement of the Terceira Island in the Azores. Jacob, who was appointed its first administrator, took several Flemish and Portuguese families to the island in this colonization venture. During the 15th century more than two thousand Flemings settled in the Azores.

The Flemish influence can still be seen in some of the Azores’ typical clothing, windmills and cheese, as well as in the physical features of some inhabitants. Because of the presence of Flemish farmers, the Azores were known, until quite recently, as the Islas de Flamengos (Flemish Isles).