The mayor of Lagos mourned on Wednesday the state of degradation that arrived the Fort of half Praia, warning that the property of great historical value is at risk of getting lost.
“It is a complete degradation and an attack on the historical and cultural heritage of the region [Algarve]without the state, the holder of the property, shows willingness in his recovery, ”Hugo Pereira told Lusa agency.
The Fort of the Half Praia or Fort of São Roque, classified as a monument of public interest in 2015 and since then in the state’s possession, was built in 1674 for coastal defense in Lagos Bay, but is currently abandoned and without any plan of recovery.
The property was delivered to the Lagos Chamber, in the district of Faro, in 1873, which gave it free of charge to customs, having worked until the mid -1990s of the last century as the post of the old tax guard.
According to the mayor, for several years that the municipality of the district of Faro “has been trying an understanding” with the state that would rehabilitate the property and put it to the service of the community. “
However, he said, on the numerous times that the municipality tried to go into dialogue, “it was always sent” to the revive platform, as if it was a private entity.
Revive is a program launched by the government that opens heritage to private investment for the development of tourist projects by granting their exploitation by public tender.
The joint initiative of the Ministries of Economics, Culture, Finance and Defense aims to promote and streamline the processes of rehabilitation and valorization of public heritage that is vacant, read in the program portal.
Hugo Pereira regretted that the municipalities “always have to pay what is from the central state, even if it is to help maintain the state’s heritage”.
“When it is in the interest of guardianship, our free support ask us, but when it is the opposite, they want money,” he lamented.
The state of degradation in which the Middle Praia Fort is “not worthy to anyone,” said the mayor, warning of “the risk of losing a monument of historical and cultural value to the Algarve”.
The Municipal Assembly of Lagos also requested the government several times to transfer the property to the tutelage of the municipality, proposals that were rejected.
This local authority launched a public petition last December to request the rehabilitation of the property, an initiative that collected only 610 signatures, far from the 7,500 necessary to be assessed in plenary of the Assembly of the Republic.
Partially rebuilt after the earthquake caused by the 1755 Mademotus, followed by the Midfielder Fort, played, until the civil war between liberals and absolutists, an important role in defending Lagos Bay, having been disquired after the Évora Convention Mount, 1834.
According to the ordinance that classifies the monument as being of public interest, the Fort of the Half Praia fulfills the criteria contained in the law relating to the matrix character of the good, the interest as a remarkable testimony of experiences or historical facts and their aesthetic value, among others .
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