It contains Lídia Jorge, António Aleixo, João de Deus, Cândido Guerreiro, Sophia de Mello Breyner, Júlio Dantas and many more. The Algarve already has a Literary Route that traverses the territory, always with the same purpose: and if we started to look at the region «also through the prism of literature» and «not only for the beautiful sands and warm water»?
In 1950, Miguel Torga published one of his main books. “Portugal” is a portrait of the country that the writer traveled through, recording landscapes, monuments and feelings.
One of the chapters is dedicated to the Algarve.
And the writer says right at the beginning: «The Algarve, for me, is always a vacation day at home. Within it I never consider myself bound to any civility, to any telluric or human congealing».
Later, he concretizes: «deep down, and like our first kings, who called themselves lords of Portugal and the Algarves, wisely separating in their titles what was centripetal from what was centrifugal in the whole of the Nation, I don’t really see myself within of the homeland".
Torga's text speaks of the Algarve as a «paradise», but also of a place doomed to oblivion – «politics did not enter there. Literature does not pontificate there. The rhythm of the hours is not broken by the jolts of newspapers and radio. When the news arrives, it is already late”.
Sílvia Quinteiro and Rita Baleiro, professors at the University of the Algarve, are the mentors of the new “Algarve Literary Route” and have had this forgetfulness of the Algarve very present.
Hence, they assume, bluntly, that one of the objectives is really “to contradict Miguel Torga”; show «that he was wrong» and that this is also a land of writers and much more than just a vacation spot.
The idea of creating this route, which is unprecedented in the region, was born in 2016.
«We were already working in literature and tourism, we are researchers in this area and there was a trip to Alte, in 2016, when we realized that there was a literary heritage there that was not sufficiently enjoyed», explains Sílvia Quinteiro.
The click came when, on that walk, the researchers saw a group of tourists, foreigners and Portuguese, reading poems by Cândido Guerreiro, on tiles near the fountains, without «perceiving well what was there».
«After talking about the possibility of translating the panels that are there, we thought why not make a more structured offer?», says Sílvia Quinteiro.
Thus was born, in 2017, the first itinerary, at the time only dedicated to Alte and Cândido Guerreiro.
Shortly afterwards, there was another one, on Ameixial, created around the time of the Caminhadas Festival, until Sílvia Quinteiro and Rita Baleiro realized that they really wanted to «create a literary route throughout the Algarve».
The Participatory Budget Portugal (OPP) of 2018 made it possible to make the dream come true: the “Algarve Literary Route” was one of the most voted projects and was officially born now, in December 2022.
In total, there are 16 itineraries to choose from, in almost all municipalities – Albufeira, Lagoa, Portimão and Aljezur are missing, but the Regional Directorate of Culture of the Algarve will provide “help” in municipalities that are not yet listed.
The route has a total of 175 literary texts by 85 authors.
This is a route that focuses on places and the way authors relate to those same places. There are texts by writers from the Algarve, but also by authors who, not being native to the region, wrote about it.
For example: the São Bartolomeu de Messines itinerary is dedicated to João de Deus, the author of the “Cartilha Maternal”, covering iconic places in the village.
The one in São Brás de Alportel also passes through several places, hitchhiking by many writers, such as José Dias Sancho or Bernardo Passos, but in Lagos there are texts by Sophia who, not being from the Algarve, had a home in Lagos.
Rita Baleiro explains that the starting point for each itinerary «was always the location and starting to identify places associated with the authors».
«From there, it was about defining stopping places, with the concern that the itineraries were all relatively easy, not least because our ambition is also to reach schools», he adds.
The pandemic, recognize the mentors of this initiative, was an obstacle
Launched the route, whose texts are of various genres (poetry, short stories, chronicles, legends, theater and travel literature), the objective is to take it to as many people as possible.
«We already have a website, social networks and our idea is also to go to schools and talk to the Algarve Tourism Region itself. We want to go wherever it takes to publicize our route», guarantees Sílvia Quinteiro.
The goal is always the same.
«We want the Algarve to be seen also through the prism of literature and to show the Algarve that we have reasons to be proud of beyond the sun, the beach and the beautiful chimneys», they conclude.
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