Last Saturday, May 20, Almancil celebrated the life and work of João Martins, Hermes Alberto and Volker Huber, who now name three streets in Almancil.
The unveiling ceremony of the plaques was attended by family, friends and many people from Almancil.
The street named after the former president of the Parish Council of Almancil João Martins is located between ASCA, the association of which he was founder and president, and the Rotunda do Emigrante, also idealized by him.
Friends and comrades highlighted the role that João Martins played in many works in this parish. «He moved mountains, walked paths, sleepless nights, leaving the comfort of his family, to do something social for the parish and its people», said Dora Olival, member of the Board's executive.
On Saturday it was Alexandre Martins, the son, who, in a very emotional way, highlighted the fact that he had always been a man dedicated to the public cause, «he lived a lifetime for Almancil, often putting his personal life in the background».
Among the work done, the current president of the Board Joaquim Pinto, along with ASCA, mentioned the expansion of the Almancil Cemetery as a legacy of this man who always thought about the needs of the community. Collecting and antiquities were also part of João Martins' life and, as such, the Board now intends to create a museum space to house all this collection.
Alongside the work done, President Vítor Aleixo highlighted the fact that he was a person «dedicated to popular culture and who valued not only material things, but the people, he was a man who knew how to look at that value».
«He was a multifaceted man, a rich man who enriched this land. He always worked with Almancil in his heart, never forgetting the world around him, and he knew how to establish that organic connection between the local and the universal", recalled the mayor.
The street next to ASCA is now called Rua Hermes Alberto, one of its presidents. Also with a community and political life linked to Almancil, Hermes Alberto died in 2020, at a time when he was president of this social and cultural association.
«A man with a solidary spirit, always ready to help others», were the words of the family members.
Mayors Joaquim Pinto and Vítor Aleixo referred to the honoree's connection to the foreign community of Almancil, not only because he himself was an emigrant in Germany, but also because he was responsible for security in the administration of Quinta do Lago.
«A son who greatly enhanced this community, he was a tireless worker for the development of Almancil and was an asset to this land, he was an engineer of a cohesive territory, who bridged the gap between foreign residents and public authorities and the local community ».
To end the morning, in S. Lourenço, next to the iconic church and in front of the old S. Lourenço Cultural Centre, it was the turn to unveil a plaque with the name of the German Volker Huber, founder (in 1981) and director of this prestigious space, until his death (in 2004).
His wife, Marie Huber, who headed the Cultural Center with him, recalled his arrival in our country. «This is where we lived and worked for more than 30 years. When we moved from Germany to Portugal, it was to fulfill a dream: to create a meeting place for people interested in art and culture, between artists and the public. The Cultural Center of S. Lourenço provided this place», said Marie.
The President of the Board spoke of the role that this Center had “in promoting Almancil and S. Lourenço in the world of arts and culture”.
«The inhabitants cry a lot the fact that their activity has ended!», he noted.
Vítor Aleixo recalled the many artists who passed through here, including painters, writers, musicians, with emphasis on the Nobel Prize in Literature, the German Günter Grass, a regular visitor to the space “and who was always in the news”.
«The Cultural Center has added beauty and culture to a place that already had these values treated in a supreme way, in the Church that is just a few meters away», said the mayor of Loulé.
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