Paulo Novais / Lusa
After the loss of human lives, the greatest damage that can cause us the catastrophe of fires is the destruction of our common heritage, our historical heritage. The deprivation of history and identity can be devastating to a population.
As Churches have always been a safe havenplace of refuge and security, not only from the spiritual point of view, but also from the physical point of view. In centuries of history, invasions and catastrophes, the interior of the churches has always presented itself as the best of shelters.
Even these days – and strange that some may seem – the church remains the solution found for protection and shelter.
It was like this, in the villages of Vale Frechoso and Hermitage. The devastation caused by the fires and the sense of security generated by the centrality and protection that the building confers, made these churches the shelter for hundreds of inhabitants.
In Vale Frechoso, in the municipality of Vila Flor, about a hundred people took refuge for two dayswhile the fire surrounded and threatened the locality. With the cuts cut, without electricity and without communications, was the church, in the center of the village, the solution found by the inhabitants to protect themselves.
Also in Hermita, in the municipality of Ponte da Barca, the population housed the local church as a way to protect themselves from the violent fire that launched for the Peneda Gerês National Park for days. There is no condition to return to their homes, That’s when meals were providedwater and all the necessary care for the population.
But if in most cases it is this common heritage that houses us, others are where This own heritage becomes more vulnerable and exposed to the risk of loss. Capelas and hits, many of them remote, are easy target of fire and their protection is virtually impossible.
It was the happened, also these daysin Leomil, in the municipality of Moimenta da Beira, and in earlyvim, in the municipality of Vila Nova de Foz Côa: his chapels were fully consumed by the flamesincluding the adornments and Andores who in the early seventeenth -century chapel were already prepared for the religious procession of the parish.
O final blow to the feeling of collective belongingof a population that had almost lost in an individual level.
But not only these small locations that suffer losses from this kind of tragedy. To the scarce 100 km from the Portuguese border in Spain, one of the oldest Roman Golden Explorations, “Las Médulas”classified as UNESCO World Heritage, suffered irreversible damagewith the violent fires this summer. A world -scale identity loss.
The tragedy caused by this type of phenomena, whether they are more or less natural, cause inspex losses. This year alone, and to date, they were accounted for in the fires, Four Mortal Victims.
If this greater loss, we add all the other type of loss, whether related to nature or our constructed heritage, we realize the how devastating these catastrophes.
I would say that, After the loss of human livesis the destruction of this common heritage – Our historical heritage – The loss that the most damage can cause us. The deprivation of history and identity can be devastating to a population.
See the legacy that was left by the previous generationsaccompanied by the sense of impotence to its protection and subsequent recovery of this heritage, it is reflected in a completely irreversible identity and cultural loss.
Personally, and as a professional of the sector, I feel completely unable to prevent this type of fatality. There are no measuresfrom the point of view of the preventive conservation of monuments that can be careful these tragedies.
It will have to be something much bigger. Something collective. Something that goes through education – downstream – and ending, at a stage we want to never arrive in court.
A final word of comfort and courage towards these small populations that have seen disappearing what is your identity heritage: as long as there is memory and workforce you can recover our common heritage!
