Over the centuries Santa Cruz was visited by important travellers. The Jesuit António Vieira, who stopped in the village after a shipwreck while returning to Lisbon from Brazil. Later the French writer Chateaubriand, in 1791, whilst fleeing the horrors of the French Revolution stopped in Graciosa en route to America. In 1814, a young Almeida Garret wrote some of his first verses, already a revelation of his budding talents. Finally, in 1879, Prince Albert of Monaco, notable for his oceanographic and maritime studies, stopped in Graciosa and visited Furna do Enxofre. He was one of the first to descend the volcanic chamber using a rope ladder.