The first documented reference to Lajes was to the first religious parish on the island, to the invocation of Nossa Senhora do Rosário (Our Lady of the Rosary). Lajes, the town, was the first area to be populated in the southern part of the island, around the 16th Century; in 1510, owing to its natural port and growing settlement it prospered, attaining the title of "vila" (town) by 1515 (becoming, some say, the oldest settlement in the Western Group of Azorean islands).