Tucked into a lush green valley carved between cloud-draped volcanic ridges, the small settlement of Praia on São Miguel island in the Azores breathes the quiet remoteness of Portugal's mid-Atlantic archipelago in this crisp real-photo-style card — maize fields and dense subtropical vegetation crowd the foreground while whitewashed houses cluster at the valley floor, the whole scene rendered in the rich tonal gradations only a true photographic postcard can achieve. A previous owner's pencilled note on the reverse reads simply "Small town of Praia," a charming annotation that underscores just how far off the beaten tourist track this corner of the Azores remained when the card was printed. Issued on a Union Postale Universelle / Bilhete Postal back with both Portuguese and English address fields, the card targeted an international traveller market passing through the strategically vital Atlantic island chain.