Lisbon, June 12, 2025 (Lusa) - The National Museum of Resistance and Freedom-Fortress of Peniche, the government programme Saber Fazer and the project to revitalise traditional weaving in Almalaguês, Coimbra, have secured three Europa Nostra awards for Portugal in the field of cultural heritage this year.
Housed in the Fortress of Peniche, one of the political prisons of the Estado Novo dictatorship (1933–1974), the National Museum of Resistance and Freedom was distinguished in the Conservation and Adaptive Reuse category. The rehabilitation and adaptation project is by Ateliê AR4, by architect João Barros Matos.
Opened on April 27, 2024, 50 years after the release of political prisoners from the dictatorship, the museum’s mission is to investigate, preserve and communicate the national memory of resistance to the Portuguese fascist regime, based on the memories and experiences of those who fought for freedom and democracy.
The fortress has been classified as a national monument since 1938.
In the Education, Training and Skills category, the government programme “Saber Fazer” (Know-How) was distinguished, a strategy for safeguarding traditional arts and crafts.
This programme presents “traditional craft production as a viable, sustainable and relevant sector, seeking to highlight the work of craftswomen and craftsmen, as well as the products, processes and materials, in their relationship with the socio-cultural context and the natural landscape”, according to its website.
Among the craft arts, the programme includes black clay pottery, embroidery, split wood basketry, cutlery, bobbin lace, Lorvão toothpicks and the construction of guitars.
The project “Almalaguês - Tecer o futuro com a tapeçaria do tempo” (weave the future with tapestry in time), in Coimbra, was distinguished in the category of Citizen Involvement and Awareness. This project aims to revitalise traditional weaving in the parish of Almalaguês, in Coimbra, mobilising the local community and the active participation of young people in particular.
A total of 251 applications were submitted to the Europa Nostra Awards by organisations and individuals from 41 European countries, which were evaluated by a jury of 11 European cultural heritage experts, divided into committees according to the respective categories.
This year saw an increase of 45 applications from five more countries than last year.
Projects were selected in each category, and the overall winner will be announced on October 13 at a ceremony at the Flagey building in Brussels, which will be attended by the European Commissioner for Youth, Culture and Sport, Glenn Micallef of Malta, and the Executive President of Europa Nostra, German historian Hermann Parzinger.
The ceremony will take place during the European Cultural Heritage Summit, which will be held in the Belgian capital from October 12–14.
The winner of the Public Choice Award, which comes with a prize of €10,000, will also be announced at the ceremony. The public can vote online for their favourite project until September 12.
The winners are divided into the categories of Conservation and Reuse, Research, Education, Training and Skills and Citizen Involvement and Awareness.
In the conservation and adaptation to new uses category, in addition to the National Museum of Resistance and Freedom, there is the roof project for the tower of the Church of St. Mauritius in Spitz an der Donau, Austria, the City Council of Antwerp, Belgium, the Solvay Hotel in Brussels and the old Municipal Market in Nicosia, Cyprus, the historic house Kambones 1615 on the Greek island of Naxos, the Cultural Complex in Lodz, Poland, the Puerta de Alcalá in Madrid and the Camellia House at Wentworth Woodhouse in the United Kingdom, a country not associated with the European Union’s Creative Europe Programme.
In the Research category, the winners were The Heritage Trees project in Belgium, Odeuropa, a joint research project involving the Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia and the United Kingdom, the Secrets of Ice glacier archaeology programme in Norway, and the pan-European Arab Heritage project coordinated by Spain.
The Education, Training and Competence category, in addition to the Saber Fazer programme, also includes the European Heritage volunteer programme from Germany, the Astra Centre for Regional Activities and Resources in Sibiu, Romania and Pró Monumenta, a preventive maintenance project for monuments in Slovakia.
Also distinguished in this category was a project by the Holy See, which is not associated with the Creative Europe Programme, the School of Arts and Crafts of St. Peter’s Factory in Vatican City.
In the category of Citizen Involvement and Awareness, there are nine projects: the Almalaguês tapestry in Portugal, “The Art of Protecting [the natural park of] Bedechka” in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria, Baltic 3D Wrecksite Ontology in Finland and the restoration of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, the donation campaign “The Culture of Ukraine has no Means of Defence” from Ukraine and Lithuania, the Cultural Heritage Days in Poland, “Casa Ouriço, Inventing a Better World” from Serbia, “Casa Batlló: Integrating Neurodiversity into World Heritage” from Barcelona, Spain and the All Together Festival in Kiev.
In the Heritage Champions category, the winners were German landscape architect Peter Latz, born in 1939, Inge Bisgaard, born in 1958, curator of the Museum and Archives of the Danish island of Greenland, who had already received the Prince Henry/Europa Nostra Award in 2022, and Moldovan philologist Varvara Buzilă, born in 1955, a specialist in ethnography.
Moldova is not associated with the Creative Europe Programme, being one of three states that are not part of the EU, along with the United Kingdom and the Vatican, but which have seen projects distinguished with a Europa Nostra Award.
The Europa Nostra Awards “highlight and promote best practices in the field of heritage in Europe, encourage cross-border exchange of knowledge and connect heritage stakeholders in wider networks”, according to a press release from the organisation sent to the Lusa news agency.
Europa Nostra, represented in Portugal by the National Culture Centre, is the largest heritage network in Europe, maintaining relations with the European Union, the Council of Europe and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), among other organisations.
The Europa Nostra Awards were created by the European Commission in 2002 and have been managed by the Europa Nostra organisation, currently chaired by Italian opera singer Cecilia Bartoli.
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