It is a church that “says a lot to the people of Loulés”. It was there that so many were married, baptized and or said goodbye to family and friends, before leaving for the cemetery. The Igreja Matriz de Loulé has already reopened, after extensive rehabilitation works, so that everyone – locals or tourists – can once again enjoy this temple, which is a National Monument.
The official reopening took place this Saturday afternoon, September 3. There are four years behind in which the Matrix was the target of a profound intervention.
The works, which cost around 890 thousand euros, aimed at the recovery and improvement of the building, solving the constructive, functional, hygienic and safety anomalies.
The work focused on the facades, roofs, infrastructure and bell tower. The intervention also included the restoration of the retables and altars of this Church, as well as the portico of the building.
Ao Sul Informação, Vítor Aleixo, mayor of Loulé, explained that, “in some cases”, the church was “at imminent risk of collapse”.
«This was an intervention from A to Z, as a National Monument requires and deserves», summarized the mayor who, when asked about the time the work took, explained that the interventions in heritage «are time consuming».
One of the novelties that will emerge with the reopening of the Matrix concerns the traffic in the surroundings, which “will be limited”, being reserved only for residents, Civil Protection and security forces.
«Parking in that area, as it happened, limited the enjoyment of the monument», considered Vítor Aleixo.
Another novelty is the fact that, in a room to the side of the church, there is now a museum centre, inaugurated this Saturday, with some religious artefacts.
For the mayor of Loulé, the reopening of the Matrix also comes to “enhance cultural tourism in the city”, which, in addition to the recently rehabilitated Islamic Baths, now has another point of interest.
Moreover, the Matrix is rich in history: the current bell tower is the former minaret of the Mosque that used to be there. Since 1924 it has been classified as a National Monument.
Photos: Flavio Costa | Sul Informação
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