125 years ago, he opened the Algarve Railway with the Amoreiras/Odemira-Faro

The Algarve lived these days, 125 years ago, true moments of joy. The event was no wonder: Faro, [...]

550x335xThe-train-crossing-the-dock-around-from-1905..jpg.pagespeed.ic.JavkcStlrsThe Algarve lived these days, 125 years ago, true moments of joy. The event was no wonder: Faro, Loulé, Albufeira, S. Bartolomeu de Messines and São Marcos da Serra were served by the fast track and the train finally arrived in the region.

Thirty-three years after the opening of the first railway section in Portugal (from Lisbon to Carregado) and 25 after the arrival in Beja, the locomotive's whistles were finally heard in the Algarve.

Despite the first direct trip between Barreiro and Faro had occurred on February 21, 1889, it would take another four months for the effective opening of the line. That happened on July 1, 1889, 125 years ago today.

Thus ended a long ordeal begun nearly thirty years ago. From the outset, parliamentary disputes between deputies from the North and the South of the country and later also between the Alentejo and the Algarve.

If the former managed to incline the assembly in their favor, making the construction of the railway in the North a priority, the latter did not convince the chamber of their intentions. At issue was the end of the railway, which the representatives of Alentejo, roughly speaking, wanted along the Guadiana, with a view to a connection to Andalusia.

They also claimed the economic advantages of extending the road to Minas de São Domingos, instead of crossing the center of the deserted and commercially hostile Algarve mountains.

Savoy Station-470x300The connection to the Algarve would then be made by boat along the Guadiana to Vila Real de Santo António, and here again by train, on a line that would cover the entire coast of the region.

The Algarvians opposed this directive, defending the entry into the Algarve through Portela dosTerms, in the São Marcos mountains, then heading to S. Bartolomeu de Messines and from here to Faro. They reminded that, in this way, a transshipment would not be necessary, with the inconveniences resulting from this for passengers and goods.

Although the decision, to the satisfaction of the Algarvians, had been taken in the parliamentary sessions of June 25 and 26, 1862, and the opening to exploration had been fixed, a few years later, for January 1, 1869, the construction of the much desired improvement. it would be in time.

If it is true that all the work was manual (only in the vicinity of S. Bartolomeu de Messines, in February 1876, around 600 people worked), without recourse to machinery (only gunpowder, pickaxes, shovels, carrycots, etc. .), and that it was necessary to excavate hills and build embankments, not to mention works of art or buildings for stations or level crossings, it is no less true that this line was rarely considered a priority in the national context.

 

works took decades

Station of-FaroA dispute between the government and the British construction company further delayed construction.

The frequent stoppages, together with the different sections in which the works were taking place, almost always provoked ridiculous situations. the haul between Faro and Boliqueime was one of the first to be completed, but it would take many years for him to circulate any composition. Meanwhile, it was a ghost thing and only a snail ventured on the rail.

However, in 1875, a terrible event added to the work: the drought. The city councils in the region, in view of the scourge of hunger that affected the people of the Algarve, pressured the government to open the works, not only on the railway, but also on the roads.

In such a way that the stretches of the line between Portela dos Termos and Silveiras (São Marcos da Serra), and between this point and Boliqueime, had the bed practically completed in December 1876. On the other hand, between Casével (Castro Verde) and Portela dos Terms, there was much to be done. In 1878, a new drought was felt in the region and the works received a new impulse.

However, after the climatic adversities, everything returned to the same, that is, the suspension of work. Many people from the Algarve grew old and died without hearing the whistle of progress tearing through the skies.

 

“Neither Majesties, nor Highnesses, nor Ministers”

550x282xlocomotive-old.jpg.pagespeed.ic.qKmiledgkiConstruction from Casével (where the train arrived in December 1870) only began in 1883, with the project and budget for the section between the Mira and São Marcos being approved in 1885.

On June 3, 1888, the stretch from Casével to Amoreiras/Odemira was opened for exploration.

Eight months later, the first technical trip between Barreiro and Faro. All that was left now was the inauguration. But if the construction of the road had, as we have seen, a difficult birth, another setback awaited the Algarve – contempt.

Between the end of February and June 1889, several Lisbon periodicals frequently reported the presence of individuals at the inauguration of the Algarve railway, whether it was the royal family, who had always participated in these moments, or members of the government.

However, when the festive day was scheduled, July 1st, a Monday, everyone declined the invitation, and a phrase became famous: “Neither Majesties, nor Highnesses, nor Ministers”.

For some representative circles in the Algarve, his absence was considered as “the greatest humiliation that the high powers of the State could have inflicted on the pride of a people who were governed by constitutional institutions”.

But the Algarvians did not lose heart and organized a demonstration of rejoicing for three days, celebrating in Faro the beginning of the exploration of its railway.

 

Finally the inauguration!

Newspaper-A-InaugurationLuís Santos, in the work Os Acessos a Faro and the neighboring counties in the second half of the XNUMXth century. XIX, which we have been following, enlightens us well on those days.

On Sunday night, the band from the Caçadores Regiment No. 4 performed in a bandstand erected in Praça da Rainha, next to the Santa Casa da Misericórdia building.

The following morning, July 1, when the first train left for Barreiro (6:10), several rocket spinnerets were burned, acting at the four philharmonic station: the “Regenerador de Lagoa”, “Alunos de Minerva” in Loulé, “December 8, Faro” and the band of the Caçadores Regiment nº4.

Shortly thereafter, a special newspaper was put up for sale The Inauguration (see image), in which the editor, Jacinto da Cunha Parreira, wrote: “Beginning twenty-five years ago, when many other provinces were already endowed with the same benefit, our railway is, in the current historical moment, a reality . Only in the last quarter of this great century is it possible for us to see, finally, the distance that separates us from the rest of the country and, not infrequently, from the rest of the world”.

At 9:00 am, at the City Council, a bodo was offered to a hundred poor people, in the presence of the president and council.

When, at 17:00 pm, he departed from Faro the second train, this one to Beja, was a large crowd that gathered around the station. Around 18:00, when the first convoy from the capital arrived, there was another moment of joy. On that occasion, the bands played the national anthem, while in the air many rockets exploded.

After nightfall, the city showed all its pleasant air. At 21 pm, a noisy “march aux flambeaux” toured the main streets of Faro. Half an hour later, lighting began in private buildings, to which the public also joined.

Arco da Vila had a surprising effect. Garnished with greenery the day before, the pediment was inscribed with the date - 1, 7th, 89 - framed by a boxwood wreath with blue and white ribbons, then thousands of different colored fires brightened the building, from the bell to the bottom .

Panoramic-of-FaroThe main architectural lines and various other accessories were artistically outlined in white light. In turn, the cornices, windows, doors and pedestals were outlined in red, blue, green and orange light. Thirty Venetian balloons, simulating chandeliers, hung from the clasp of the arch. The effect was great, said the newspapers of the time.

The frontispieces of the hospital, the church of Santa Casa da Misericórdia, the Mercado da Verdura and the Casa da Dízima were also illuminated. The main streets of Baixa were decorated. D. Francisco Gomes had two rows of poles painted in pale blue, at a distance of three meters from each other, which, at the tops, had unfurled banners in the national colors and various escutcheons.

At the entrance, on the side of the square, rose two large columns covered with Venetian balloons. The poles were connected, in the transversal direction of the street, “by arches of colorful balloons, an arrangement that produced the effect of a dazzling dome of light”.

Rua da Sapataria was also lit up and decorated by Venetian balloons and flagged poles. In the extreme south, three arches were raised, the one in the center presenting the portrait of King D. Carlos I, surmounted by a crown and flanked by a considerable number of lights. Rua Direita had an equally superb effect.

From 22:00 pm, Montepio Farense opened its bazaar-quermesse, installed in Praça da Rainha, in an elegant pavilion composed of three bodies connected by two small galleries, all lit by Venetian balloons.

 

125 years ago with the railway, as now with the EN125

Station-of-Messines-in-1930Thousands of people traveled from all over the Algarve to watch the event and it was not the disregard of the royal family and the government that prevented the Algarve from organizing and participating in such joyful and noisy parties: “There were times when it was not possible to walk around Praça da Rainha and the streets Direita, Rego and Sapataria, such was the immense mass of people gathered there”.

The next day, the concerts by the bands were repeated, as well as the lighting, opening the bazaar again.

Festivities that were repeated in other locations, as reported by Gazeta dos Caminhos de Ferro de Portugal and Hespanha, in the edition of 11 July 1889: “The ascending train was received at all the stations along the route with an enormous competition from the people; the S. Bartolomeu de Messines station was flagged and the competition there was extraordinary. At the Sabóia/Monchique station, already in the mountains, the effect of more than a hundred men with torches, stretching between the needles, was admirable”.

Two direct trains, one in each direction and another two with transfers in Beja, were available to the people of the Algarve, to reach the capital of the kingdom in a journey of 13:20. A new chapter in the history of the Algarve was now open.

125 years later, sad analogies to the history of the railway in the Algarve are not lacking in our days, whether in the suspended works of the EN125, or in events where the contempt to which the Algarve and the Algarve are voted by the central government is evident.

 

Author Aurélio Nuno Cabrita is an environmental engineer and researcher of Local and Regional History

Comments

Ads