Former Court of Albufeira turns into Arts and Crafts Center

The building of the old Court of Albufeira will be transformed into an Arts and Crafts Centre, with space for a shop, training and exhibitions. The final project for the rehabilitation of the property has already been handed over to the Municipality, informed the City Council of Albufeira this Tuesday, June 7th.

The work to adapt the space located at Rua Nova, nº15, will cost around 600 thousand euros, of which around 386 (65%) are shared by the FEDER. This intervention is part of Albufeira's Urban Regeneration Action Plan (PARU).

«This is an emblematic space for all of us, it was the Court of Albufeira for many years and this is a way to reopen it to everyone, emphasizing memory, crafts and leisure. I am very pleased to know that soon we will no longer have this building, whose degradation made everyone sad», says the Mayor, Carlos Silva e Sousa.

Albufeira Town Hall remembers that the building of the old Court of Albufeira was built at the end of the 1992th century and was in operation until XNUMX (year of the inauguration of the Palace of Justice of Albufeira, next to the Town Hall). Since then, the property has been unoccupied «and with conservation problems».

According to the Municipality of Albufeira, «the project for the new use of this space seeks in the particularities of the building the starting point for an intervention with a contemporary approach, namely with the reinterpretation of some themes inherited from Mediterranean architecture: the patio as an element of organization space within the lots; the textured white walls, using painted solid brick; the blinds that served as a filter of light and control of views; and the well-defined interior/exterior relationship».

The municipality recalls that «Albufeira's application to PARUs was approved by the FEDER with merit (4,55 out of 5), allowing this municipality to obtain more funds than the others, totaling 910 thousand euros».

Of the 1,4 million euros budgeted by the municipality to carry out the works planned under the PARU, the municipality “will only have to invest 490 thousand euros in the following works: Integrated Rehabilitation of Praça da República and Museum of Archaeological Remains (opening in next 10th of June), Rehabilitation of the space of the former Igreja Matriz in Albufeira and Rehabilitation of the Old Court Building to adapt to the Center for Arts and Crafts».