T-shirts, coasters, earrings, or magnets inspired by the churches of Tavira. These are some of the objects that can be found in a small shop, located in the Church of Santa Maria do Castelo.
Miguel Neto, parish priest of Tavira, went to Venice, Italy, to bring a new concept applied to religious tourism to the “Venice of the Algarve” and created the ArtGilão Tavira, a company that, through the sale of merchandising, in a first phase, intends to raise funds for the restoration of Tavirense churches.
In conversation with Sul Informação, Miguel Neto explained that «ArtGilão arose from a need. In Tavira there are several churches and we started to see that this was also a problem due to the high maintenance costs, especially in the interior, which is somewhat degraded. There are problems that need to be resolved, it is necessary to restore, recover and it was necessary to get funds for all that».
When Miguel Neto arrived at the parish, «this church was open, [Santa Maria], tickets were charged for entry, but when I looked, I realized that there was potential for it, through the sale of merchandising, raise funds for the restoration of church art pieces», he says.
“It is not with a small shop that we are going to achieve this, but it is a first step, so that the churches are self-sustainable in terms of their heritage through tourists”, explains the parish priest.
A good part of the first pieces, such as earrings, coasters, or refrigerator magnets, with tiles from the Church of Santa Maria, were produced «with the image of the Martyna Mazurek [Polish photographer and artisan residing in the Algarve], but we started to look for other solutions. We already have markers, bags, t-shirts, hats, we plan to have umbrellas, but we are also thinking of contacting suppliers for personalized pens or powerbanks», adds Miguel Neto.
The parish priest says that, “in Portugal, I don't know of any project for a parish similar to this one. It's a concept taken from Italy, of what parishes do in Venice, Pisa, or Florence, to explore their monuments. And Tavira has in common with Italy the fact that it has many churches».
Mass in English is also a way to bring tourists closer to the Church
Since May 7th, on Sundays at 9:00 am, there is a mass in English at the Church of Santa Maria and, according to Miguel Neto, the number of participants “has grown. started with 20 people, but more have been coming».
The parish priest says that "they are mostly Irish" and that "there is everything", from "residents, who started to pass on the message, and now tourists are starting to come too, and they get confused a little, because Tavira has a lot of residential and tourism people who come here for a good part of the year. We bet on advertising in English newspapers, because it was the public that interested us», he concludes.
See product and store images:
Comments