The Chamber of Albufeira is analyzing a request for prior information made by an architecture office that designed the construction of a hotel for the former Bullring of Albufeira, a source from the municipality told Lusa.
According to the same source, the request for prior information (PIP) was filed in November 2022, but talks with the City Council architects will only start now, with no definitive indications on the fate of the former Bullring being foreseen before after “two to three months”.
With a PIP, the promoters of a given project question the councils about the feasibility of carrying out a certain urban operation or set of directly related urban operations, a request that precedes the licensing procedures and prior communication for construction, expansion, alteration, conservation and demolition works. of real estate.
The architecture office and design Saraiva+Associados published the project on its website, under the name Real Praça de Touros, which it presents as being “a contemporary, sober and ambitious urban space, which promotes social inclusion and relevant environmental awareness”.
In the virtual images of the project presented, the construction, for a private investor, of «a hotel, cultural areas, commercial spaces for conviviality and garden and relaxation spaces» is planned in several buildings and spaces that, in total, are 11 thousand meters area squares.
According to the project, the larger building maintains the circular shape of the Bullring, inaugurated on April 10, 1982 and deactivated since the end of 2019.
A person responsible for the company that acquired the space in 2021 told Lusa at the time that the new owners planned to rehabilitate the urban complex with 40 apartments, a shopping centre, where there was a cinema, a disco and a bingo, as well as Praça de Bulls, meanwhile disabled.
«Our objective is to carry out an urban rehabilitation of the entire area, preserving the memory and identity of the bullring in the city», said Jorge Duarte, administrative manager of Corcova in the Algarve – Investimentos Turísticos e Imobiliários, SA -, which acquired the complex in 2020.
The Bullring in Albufeira, with a capacity for 3.803 spectators, was the only one that still operated regularly in the Algarve.
According to data from the General Inspection of Cultural Activities (IGAC), in 2019 it was the square with the most shows in Portugal (20), but the sixth in terms of attendance (16.260), with an average of 813 spectators per bullfight.
The 2019 Bullfighting Activity Report prepared by the IGAC highlights the fact that Albufeira «has moved to sixth place in terms of spectators, when it had remained in second place for at least four years, with a decrease of around 5.600 spectators having been determined».
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