Pilar da Bretanha is a civil parish in the municipality of Ponta Delgada on the island of São Miguel, in the Portuguese archipelago of the Azores.

Little is known of the original chapel, which was dedicated to Nossa Senhora do Pilar (Our Lady of the Pillar), except for the writings of Dr. Ernesto do Canto, on his treatises on religious sanctuaries of São Miguel, titled O Preto no Branco.

[4] Frutuoso continued to identify a small community of 82 homes (in a region that extended from Nossa Senhora dos Remédios, in the northeast, to Mosteiros, in the northwest) and whose residents cultivated wheat and collected woad for export.

It was Baron Fernandes, another resident of the grotto of João Bom, who discovered an interesting agricultural technique in order to perpetuate consistent crop yields in this region.

Then, when another settler, Lopo Pessoa, arrived on the island he went one step further; he began to alternate his crops annually, between pulse and wheat, to increase his yields.

The trip, approximately five hours in length, required a resident of the parish to journey the whole day from twilight to dusk, and cost 375 réis (departing at four in the morning and returning by sunset).

[6] Religious festivals dedicated to the Holy Spirit run in most of the parish, beginning after Easter Sunday and ending on 29 June.