The classification process of Lapa Tower, in Lagoa, as a Monument of Public Interest (MIP) is under public consultation until the 25th.
All documentation associated with the process can be found online, on the website of the Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage.
The idea of classifying this old watchtower, located in Vale da Azinhaga, in Ferragudo, in the municipality of Lagoa, came from the local Parish Council, then presided over by Luís Alberto.
The initial intention was to classify it as a property of interest to the municipality, but thanks to the intervention of the Câmara de Lagoa and its councilor Anabela Simão, in 2015, the Regional Directorate of Culture of the Algarve decided to advance to a higher grade classification, as a monument of interest public.
This process was officially launched in August 2017, with the publication in Diário da República of the «opening of the classification process, by the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage».
On March 20, 2019, the procedure for classification as a Monument of Public Interest (MIP) of Torre da Lapa received a favorable opinion from the Architectural and Archaeological Heritage Section of the National Council of Culture. The agreement of Paula Araújo da Silva, Director General of Cultural Heritage, was given on 29 March.
Before that, in 2018, Torre da Lapa was the target of a careful restoration, on the initiative of the City Council, which allowed for the restoration of dignity to this monument.
Once the current public consultation process is concluded, during which any citizen can submit suggestions, "there will be a final pronouncement and respective order of the Secretary of State for Culture".
«Once classified as MIP, Torre da Lapa becomes the fourth property with a degree of national interest and safeguard in the municipality of Lagoa, joining the Castle of São João de Arade, in the same parish, the Igreja Matriz in Estômbar and to the Fort and Chapel of Nossa Senhora da Rocha, in Porches», according to the Town Council of Lagoa.
Torre da Lapa or Marinha is a XNUMXth-century watchtower built on top of a cliff next to Vale da Azinhaga, in the parish of Ferragudo. This XNUMXth-century military structure included a cordon of lookouts that complemented the coastal defensive system of Portuguese territory, from Minho to the Algarve, and whose purpose was to alert the defense on land and coastal populations to threats of privateering and piracy, or others that might come by sea'.
Comments