Last Saturday, July 30th, Portimão celebrated the centenary of the inauguration of its Railway Bridge, which allowed the train to finally cross the river Arade and reach this city, as well as a few kilometers further, to Lagos.
The 100 years were celebrated through an exhibition of “Railway Philately”, by the Associação Filatélica do Algarve, at the Parish Center of Nossa Senhora do Amparo, followed by the inauguration, at the Portimão Museum, of the exhibition “100 years of the Portimão Railway Bridge” , the launch of the entire postage stamp of CTT, commemorating the anniversary and a gathering of the Group of Friends of the Museum of Portimão, which culminated in a final toast, which included the birthday cake.
In the Auditorium of the Museum of Portimão, in a very well attended gathering organized by the GAMP, José Gameiro, Scientific Director of the Museum, presented a very visual historical journey through the difficult and long odyssey, which involved the arrival of the railway to Portimão and the completion of the branch from Tunes to Lagos, thanks to the construction of the Railway Bridge over the Arade River, inaugurated 100 years ago, precisely on July 30, 1922.
Gameiro presented a summary of the main aspects, advances and setbacks that involved the evolution of this slow journey that, 66 years after the inauguration of the Railway in Portugal (28-10-1856), finally contributed to improve the capacity of displacement and transport in the national territory, not only for the people of Portimão, but for all the populations of the western Algarve.
Finally, José Gameiro wished that from this commemorative date, the bridge would symbolically become a passage to “other shores”, namely those of greater sustainability, mobility and accessibility.
At this meeting, the GAMP management also took the opportunity to congratulate themselves on the nomination of José Gameiro as Museologist of the Year, by APOM-Portuguese Association of Museology, for his role in promoting and prestige, at European level, of local, regional and national museology.
The final tasty and sweet toast took place, commemorating this ephemeris, to which a special cake contributed greatly to the construction of this century-old bridge, as always coming from the expert hands of Vera Santos.
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