The District Archive of Faro, whose new building celebrated 17 years ago, has seen the quality of services provided deteriorate in recent years.
Without a director since last December, the new director takes office this Monday, March 3rd. This is Maria Luísa Pereira, who was until now an archivist at the Municipality of Silves. Hopefully, it can breathe new life into an important institution for the region.
On February 25, 1997 it was solemnly inaugurated, in Faro, by the then Minister of Culture Manuel Maria Carrilho, a modern and model building for the District Archives. 27 years had passed since its creation and, with it, a long ordeal with regard to installations ended.
The new building was the result of the tireless efforts and so much bitterness of one of its most beloved and tireless directors, Salustiano Lopes de Brito.
The Algarve now had its Archive, which abutted the mother house, the Torre do Tombo / Directorate-General for Books, Archives and Libraries, on which it directly depends.
The memory of the region, poured into its documentary collection, was thus kept in its own building and available to all interested parties, for consultation in a large reading room. The Algarve had its “Torre do Tombo”, with exhibition and meeting rooms and a vast document deposit.
In fact, the walls of the District Archives contain a vast collection, being one of the richest in the country, compared to other districts.
It incorporates the records of baptisms, marriages and deaths of all Algarve parishes, from the mid-1590th century to the first decade of the 1989th century, the judicial processes of the region's districts, the documents produced in the notary offices (with extreme dates from XNUMX -XNUMX), or the documental fund of the Civil Government of Faro, with elements prior to its creation (1752-1981).
It also includes other funds, such as the 5th Industrial Circumscription, the extinct Junta Autónoma das Estradas – delegation of Faro (1856-1969), from the Finance Department (1440-1936), from Compromissos Marítimos, Companhia de Pescarias do Algarve (1816-1937), also having a support library and newspaper library.
However, and despite this very rich collection and a remarkable frequency of readers (more than 2000 per year), the quality of services provided has been degrading in recent years and very substantially lately, even despite a significant increase in readers, who are looking for elements with a view to tax exemption for water resources.
Without a director since last December, the new director will take office tomorrow. However, and after the energetic Dr. Salustiano, the District Archives have not had directors so far that fought for the enlargement of the space, with few exceptions.
Today, the Archive, of modeling, only has the building, as the reading room has not had air conditioning for several years, as it has been out of order, the same happening with the scanner, which has been inoperative since last May, at the expense of readers and themselves. documents, just working an old photocopier.
Elevators no longer operate either. In addition to all this, the maintenance of the space is quite precarious, highlighting the external terrace on the first floor, which showed a lack of conservation for many months, as well as the hygiene of the bathrooms, as the Archive no longer has a cleaning service. cleaning, as happened until very recently.
These are now the two professional technicians who, in addition to serving the public during normal working hours, clean at the end of the day, outside their working hours and without any additional remuneration for this purpose.
With regard to human resources, these are critical, with only five people working in that space: in addition to the two techniques already mentioned, there are only two senior technicians and one professional, who carry out the archival treatment of the documents (many still to be inventoried).
Seventeen years after it was inaugurated, this is the state of the District Archive of Faro. In view of all this, all that is needed is its closure.
That investigators, living forces of the city of Faro, municipalities, the Algarve Intermunicipal Community (AMAL) and the population in general, in short the entire region, are energetic in rejecting the current situation, demanding the operationality and dignity of the District Archives of Faro to the Directorate-General for Books, Archives and Libraries/Torre do Tombo, based in Lisbon, otherwise the collective history of the region will be lost very soon, and with it our own history!
Author Aurélio Nuno Cabrita
(reader of the District Archive of Faro since 1996)
Aurélio Nuno Cabrita is an environmental engineer and researcher of Local and Regional History
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