"Get ready! You are about to discover a garden without exotic plants or lawns, but populated with species adapted to the Mediterranean climate». It is with this phrase that we are welcomed on the Manuel Gomes Guerreiro Eco-Botanical Route, in Querença, on a south-facing slope, where there are strawberry trees, rosemary, pennyroyal, rosemary, honeysuckle or Cretan thyme.
The idea to create this true Mediterranean oasis came up in 2019 and came from the Manuel Viegas Guerreiro Foundation.
With the pandemic over, this Friday, March 10, was a day of celebration in Querença, with the inauguration of what is the first Mediterranean botanical garden in the Algarve and two special guests: Ramalho Eanes, former President of the Republic, and his wife Manuela.
The former head of state was a friend of Gomes Guerreiro, a native of Querença, an academic who was one of the first ecologists in Portugal.
Mediterranean flora was one of his passions; the impact of political and economic decisions, contrary to sustainability, one of his main concerns.
«It is important to remember and make them remember those who were very great», Ramalho Eanes told journalists, referring to his friend Manuel Gomes Guerreiro, who died in 2000, and who was also the first rector of the University of Algarve (UAlg).
For the former President of the Republic, this Route, which occupies an area of around 1,5 hectares, is, above all, a «just tribute» to a «man who was exemplary».
«We must commemorate him in order to remember him as a source and engine of inspiration, in favor of the country and the region», he added.
Fernando Santos Pessoa is one of the main faces of this initiative. It was he, as a landscape architect and «landscape poet», who designed this Eco-Botanical Trail.
In this mission, he had the help of two disciples (João Marum and João Rodrigues) and the company, in the scientific consultancy, of Jorge Paiva, his friend and award-winning biologist who was also present at the inauguration.
«With this, there is a guarantee that we have plants of the local flora here, which can even serve as a stimulus», said, enthusiastic, Fernando Santos Pessoa to the Sul Informação.
The almost exclusive choice of native plants makes it almost unnecessary to water throughout the year.
In the garden, which develops in terraces, there are multiple species of flora characteristic of the Algarve and Mediterranean region, such as the carob tree, the laurel tree or the cerquinho oak.
Many have an additional bonus: in addition to the identification, there is a QR Code that allows you to obtain additional scientific information about each of them on your mobile phone or tablet, through an application developed by the University of Algarve.
Some QR Codes provide videos that serve as a framework not only for the flora, but also for personalities related to the route, such as Manuel Gomes Guerreiro, Fernando Santos Pessoa or Filipa Faísca, guardian of the oral tradition of Querença.
For the landscape architect, this aspect can have «didactic effects», among, for example, younger people, something also emphasized by Ramalho Eanes.
«It is a very important garden, especially for young people to know what native plants are and the interest they have from an ecological perspective», he considered.
On this visit to Querença, Ramalho Eanes and his wife Manuela were also protagonists of a symbolic moment. Next to a 1575-year-old olive tree, the couple helped plant another, much younger one.
«If Professor Gomes Guerreiro were alive, he would be very happy today».
Photos: Pedro Lemos | Sul Informação
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