The Sagres Promontory, classified national monument, was unanimously selected by the national authority responsible for the pre-selection, together with Mértola Vila Museu, to submit an application for the European Heritage Label (MPE), at a meeting held this Friday, at the Council Room of the Palácio Nacional da Ajuda, in Lisbon.
The candidacy project of the Promontório de Sagres was presented by the Regional Directorate of Culture of the Algarve, the entity that oversees the monument.
The application considered, as its objectives, the awareness of the European importance of the site, through information actions (eg signage, staff training, Internet resources, etc.), the organization of educational activities, especially aimed at children and young people , to improve understanding of the common history of Europe and its heritage, the promotion of multilingualism.
Other objectives are also the exchange of experience and participation in projects within the networks of sites distinguished with the MPE, the promotion of the visibility and attractiveness of the site at a European level, namely using new technologies and digital means, and exploring European synergies, and also the organization of artistic and cultural activities that promote European professionals and artists or strengthen the link between heritage and contemporary creation.
The European Heritage Label (MPE) highlights heritages that commemorate and symbolize European integration, ideals and the history of the European Union.
Last year, of the applications submitted by Portugal, the General Library of the University of Coimbra and the Letter of Law for the abolition of the death penalty were accepted, among the 16 sites recommended for the attribution of the MPE.
The Regional Directorate of Culture of the Algarve underlines, in a press release, that «after the conclusion of the current Project for the Requalification and Enhancement of the Promontory of Sagres (PRVPS), one of the main priorities of the Regional Directorate of Culture of the Algarve, with funding from the Turismo de Portugal and POAlgarve 21, it is intended to maintain the management, supervision and monitoring of the exclusively public fortress of Sagres».
The vision to be developed for the Sagres Promontory, within the scope of the European Heritage Label, will «reflect the uniqueness of the National Monument, due to its geographical importance and historical context, in the context of the Epic of the Portuguese Discoveries».
It will also «enhance the cultural, touristic and leisure offer in the Algarve region, promoting greater exploitation of its resources, thus boosting tourist demand».
The mission of the Sagres Promontory will be, according to the Regional Directorate, «to provide its visitors with a unique experience, in a perspective of contemplating the Monument in all its aspects, pedagogically framed by the History that is associated with the Sagres Fortress».
The proposal for the Promontório as of 2016, following the conclusion of its Requalification and Valorization Project, intends to «implement a sustainable management model that covers the set of all visitable sites related to DRCAlg».
That entity adds that "the symbolic, historical and physical values of the Promontory of Sagres satisfy the objective of the MPE, which is to give visibility to sites that celebrate and symbolize integration, ideals and the history of Europe."
Other heritages are present to accentuate the historical dimension of the cultural landscape, namely one of the largest concentrations of Megalithic standing stones in Europe, surpassed only by Brittany, or the memory of the Church of Corvo, between the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries, the most important site of pilgrimage of Mozarabic Christians.
But the fortress of Sagres is not isolated. The Regional Directorate of Culture emphasizes that the history of the Promontory of Sagres is «directly related to other cultural assets located in the extreme west of the Algarve, and that constitute a cluster of sites particularly relevant to European history'.
These sites are the Chapel of Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe (which refers to the religious dimension of the Portuguese and Iberian epic and to the rescue of captives in this frontier of Christianity), or the city of Lagos (home of the Henriquin commercial emporium, which received the first black slaves brought to Europe from sub-Saharan Africa – trafficking recalled in the building called “Mercado dos Escravos” and witnessed by the remains, in Vale da Gafaria, of the oldest black slave burial site in European territory-, a village that in mid- from the XNUMXth century, following a design by Miguel Arruda, it was endowed with the first bastioned wall built with modern precepts in Portuguese territory).
Also relevant are the Sagres Square fortresses, which include the São Vicente do Cabo, Beliche and Baleeira forts, as well as a remarkable underwater cultural heritage, which includes the visitable remains of the ship l'Océan, which bear witness to an episode of the Seven Years War, which makes Sagres a privileged destination for cultural diving in Europe.
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