Condeixa-a-Nova, Coimbra, Portugal, March 2, 2026 (Lusa) - The Portuguese Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport said on Monday that the misfortune of the bad weather will be used to carry out work on museums and monuments that had been planned for decades but never got off the ground.
"This bad weather, which was tragic for the Central Region but also ended up having repercussions in other parts of the country, has had a few positive outcomes, one of which is some of these interventions that have been waiting to be carried out for many decades," said Minister Margarida Balseiro Lopes.
The Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport visited the National Museum of Conímbriga this afternoon, stopping by the archaeological site and the mosaic workshop, where it was possible to see some of the damage left by Storm Kristin, which forced it to close for a week.
Speaking to the Lusa news agency, the minister explained that the reconstruction of the Mosaic Workshop is an example of how misfortune can be turned into an opportunity to build something better: "One of the most obvious examples is the Mosaic Workshop which, in addition to being temporary, as you can see, had conditions that were objectively not the best for the people working inside the workshop and which were exposed in the context of the storm: we are talking about asbestos. We now have enough funds to build a new workshop, which will fit perfectly into the landscape".
The reconstruction of the mosaic workshop is expected to take place a few metres further on, with a budget of between €1.2 and €1.3 million.
"What Museus e Monumentos de Portugal has indicated to me is that it will be possible to have the Mosaic Workshop completed by the end of the year," she added.
According to the Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, this is an intervention that will be carried out in parallel with the four projects of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) that are currently underway or open for tender and which "should be completed between June and August".
Three of these PRR interventions focus on the Upper Empire Wall, Sector F Wall and Bico da Muralha, while the other is a Wi-Fi project for the Museum and Archaeological Site.
"One point that I think is important concerns those smaller houses, which we saw with some of the Museum's workers, which are currently not in a good condition for anyone to work inside. They will also be refurbished," she said.
The director of the National Museum of Conímbriga, Vítor Dias, welcomed the fact that they will have a Mosaic Workshop "with a level of comfort adapted and appropriate to contemporary standards".
"It will be a significant gain, not only for our ability to intervene in the archaeological field, but also in terms of being able to create a training school associated with mosaic conservation," he added.
According to Vítor Dias, this is an ambition that has been around for several decades, since the Mosaic Workshop is more than forty years old and "was already temporary at the time".
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