Évora, Ãug. 25, 2025 (Lusa) - The rehabilitation of the West Wing of the Convent of S. Bento de Cástris, the first officially launched contract for Évora's European Capital of Culture 2027, is once again up for public tender, worth €2.5 million.
The public tender procedure notice, which is the responsibility of the public Cultural Heritage Institute, was published in the Diário da República (Official Gazette) last Friday.
According to the notice, the tender establishes a base price of €2.5 million and a deadline for the work of 240 days.
This is the second public tender launched for this contract. On 16 June, a notice was also published in the Official Gazette for the rehabilitation of that wing of the same convent, with the same base price, although at the time the deadline was 270 days.
Contacted by Lusa, Património Cultural clarified today by email that this rehabilitation contract for the convent on the outskirts of Évora, funded by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR), was subject to changes to the initial project to ensure that the stipulated deadlines would be met.
"These changes led to the need to relaunch the tender procedure," he explained, adding that "the opening of the respective public tender, already published in the Diário da República, is scheduled."
The Convento de S. Bento de Cástris houses the headquarters of the Évora 2027 Association, which manages Évora European Capital of Culture (CEC) 2027.
On 27 June, at a ceremony presided over by the Minister of Culture, Margarida Balseiro Lopes, the president of Cultural Heritage, João Soalheiro, told Lusa that the renovation of the entire west wing of the convent would be "the first contract to be launched" as part of Évora CEC 2027.
Referring to the call for tenders published in the Official Gazette on 16 June, he estimated that the contract could be awarded in the "second half of August, first half of September".
In the information now made available to Lusa, the public institute has updated these deadlines: "Once the phases of assessing the proposals, verifying the administrative requirements and complying with the legal deadlines have been completed, it is expected that the award and subsequent consignment of the contract will take place during October."
The intervention, said the organisation, is expected to be completed "by June 2026", which, "as planned", will ensure that the equipment "will be fully available to integrate the programme of the European Capital of Culture - Évora 2027".
On June 27, in his speech at the session on the artistic and infrastructure programmes of the Évora 2027 ECOC, the president of Cultural Heritage highlighted the importance of the investment in the convent.
"An investment of €9.5 million is going to be made here in São Bento de Cástris.
I want Évora to realise that this is perhaps one of the most consistent and important investments ever in this monument," he argued.
João Soalheiro told Lusa that the idea is to transform the convent "into a house of culture, a shelter for everyone, where everyone can recognise themselves and live and experience culture".
For the time being, the $2.5 million redevelopment project includes "the recovery of spaces, conservation and restoration of more dense cultural heritage, such as painting and sculpture," he said.
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