The centenary of the elevation of São Brás de Alportel to council is on June 1st, but its celebration has already started a long time ago. The population and local associations joined the challenge launched in 2010 by the City Council and will be the main actors in the celebrations, which will be launched on Sunday and last for a year. The idea is to leave “marks for the future” in several areas.
This means, from the outset, leaving physical work done, but much more than that. Exhibitions, spectacles, historical recreations, publications about this victory of São Brasense society, achieved on June 1, 1914, gatherings and the recovery of art pieces, made by São Brasense artists are some of the initiatives announced.
Many of them arise from suggestions made by civil society. The program, which was presented last Thursday at a session that took place at the Museu do Trajo de São Brás, already gathers more than 50 proposals that were presented, but it is not yet closed and is a "work in progress", according to the President of the Committee for the Commemorations of the Centenary Emanuel Sancho.
Both the coordinator of the commemorations, also director of the Museu do Trajo, and the mayor of São Brás made it clear that the most important thing is to involve the population, so that the commemorations do not end up being something "ephemeral".
“A land is worth a lot for its people. And the concept of this program is to get them involved. There were 30 associations, institutions, schools, firefighters and musical bands that accepted our challenge», illustrated Emanuel Sancho.
Vítor Guerreiro, in turn, stressed the involvement of the population of different age groups, "from the youngest to the oldest". “Children have been working all this school year on the centenary theme. The logo of the celebrations was designed by a student from a school in São Brás de Alportel, as part of an ideas competition that was launched», she exemplified.
The elderly, as well as people of all ages, will be the protagonists of two high moments of the celebrations, one that will take place on Sunday and/or, which will take place within a year. "The parade alluding to the centenary has the confirmed presence of 600 people, from the community or linked to associations," he said.
On the 1st there will be a hard party in São Brás de Alportel
The parade alluding to the XNUMXth anniversary of the elevation of São Brás in the parish of Faro the municipality is just one of the initiatives planned for Sunday. This procession takes to the street right after the Raising of the Flag, the moment that officially launches the party and which is scheduled for 10 am, in Paços do Concelho.
The parade goes to Praça da República, a space that has been revamped and will open on June 1st, at 11 am. This is an example of the work that the Chamber wants to leave completed or to launch in the centenary year. Soon, the works in the São Sebastião square will start, an intervention that should, even so, take a few years to be completed.
Also in Praça da República, the solemn session will be held and municipal insignia will be handed out.
In the afternoon, the centenary party joins the celebration of Children's Day. The Carrera Viegas Garden hosts the Children's Festival 2014, between 15 pm and 19 pm, where there will be many games, such as “inflatables” and traditional games to cheer up the youngest.
At 17 pm, the exhibition «São Brás de Alportel 2014», about the history of this municipality, will be inaugurated at the Municipal Gallery. This is followed, at 18 pm, with a visit to the mausoleum of the municipality's founder, João Beatriz Rosa.
From 22 pm onwards, «Miguel Gameiro & Pólo Norte» will give music to São Brasenses, with the show «Tour 20 years of songs», with free admission. The night ends with a fireworks show.
For a year, a lot will happen in São Brás de Alportel
The program is not closed, but there are already many initiatives scheduled. The public space, for example, will be transformed into an exhibition gallery, with four different exhibitions, with quarterly duration.
The first of these exhibitions will have the theme “The Story told by the Streets”, in which “people will be challenged by the history of São Brás as they walk through the village”. There will also be a street exhibition that will highlight the county's historical heritage, as well as a re-edition of old postcards, so that one can make “a journey through history, through them”, according to Vítor Guerreiro.
The centenary will also be an “excuse” to enhance the historical heritage of São Brás. In addition to a heritage rehabilitation program, “a project to enhance the Verbena garden, the grand ballroom of our ancestors” and the creation of a viewpoint in the Churchyard, which has “a fantastic view, with sea window'.
To close the celebrations, on June 1, 2015, a historical recreation of the events that allowed the emancipation of São Brás de Alportel is already scheduled, a feat achieved by a group of local citizens, including João Beatriz Rosa, a republican that he managed, through his influence and knowledge, to turn into reality what was already an old aspiration of a locality in the interior, already very dynamic in social and economic terms at the time.
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