On Wednesday, the 15th, the Municipal Council of Lagos submitted an application to European funds, in the amount of 1,5 million euros, to expand the Dr. José Formosinho Municipal Museum.
The project submitted by the municipality of Lagos to the CRESC Algarve 2020 funds involves the creation of a new wing of the museum, across the street, in the building where the former PSP squadron functioned.
«The Archeology nucleus will be installed there, which will have much more space to exhibit the rich collection of the Lagos Museum, but also more modern conditions and in line with current needs», explained Chamber President Joaquina Matos to Sul Informação.
The backyard at the back of the former PSP building will also be used by the museum, either as a space for leisure and activities, or even to exhibit some of the pieces, such as prehistoric standing stones, said the mayor.
Joaquina Matos added that, in the current museum, and with the departure of the archaeological pieces, "a rehabilitation project" will also be advanced. The aim is to «give more quality to the presentation of the collections we have there, as well as create a new and more functional reception space».
The Lagos Museum owes its name to José Formosinho, its main promoter, in the 1930s. The museum maintains the same character, atmosphere and even the multidisciplinary collection, which ranges from archeology, regional and even African ethnography, painting and art decorative, numismatics, sacred art and even a malacology collection (shells and whelks). Visiting this structure today is like going back eight or nine decades in the history of museology. Hence, its expansion and requalification was a project that had been cherished for a long time.
For now, the mayor of Lagos still does not know the dates for approval of the candidacy, launching the competition for the works, but she hopes that the expansion of the Museum can be "conducted as soon as possible". The project, he revealed, “was very well thought out and discussed, so now the works need to move forward”.
The expansion and requalification join the extensive restoration work on the Church of Santo António, a national monument attached to the Dr. José Formosinho Museum, the third most sought after place by tourists in the Algarve, after the Fortress of Sagres and the Castle of Silves. These works cost a total of 350 thousand euros, of which 125 thousand were paid by the City of Lagos.
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