The decision was taken during the 20th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, taking place until Saturday in New Delhi, India.
The art of naval carpentry in the Aveiro region, translated into moliceiro boats, was inscribed this Tuesday on the list of intangible heritage in need of urgent safeguarding by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
The decision was taken during the 20th session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage, taking place until Saturday in New Delhi, India.
According to the documentation available on the besides the moliceiros for the urgent safeguard list, Portugal did not have any nomination to vote for the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in this committee session.
The Moliceiro Boat had already been registered in 2022 in the National Inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage, on the initiative of the Intermunicipal Community of the Aveiro Region (CIRA).
In the documentation on the UNESCO website it is recalled that, despite being considered a practice representative of regional identity, only five master moliceiro builders are activefour of whom are over 60 years old.
The UNESCO application included a detailed list of proposals to reverse the situation, from intervention with the school community to better understand this practice to the installation of electric motors on tourist boats.
One of the unique aspects of moliceiro boats are the paintings on the stern and aft: “the bow is the monumental part of the moliceiro, in which figures, drawings and legends are exclusive, unparalleled in any known type of navigation”, wrote Jaime Vilar, in a book dedicated to that vessel.
In this work, the author classified the captions on the bow as “satirical, humorous and erotic”, “religious”, “romantic, jokey and sarcastic”, “professional, moral and historical”.
The same author, based on data collected from craftsmen, described that a moliceiro measures, on average, “15 meters in length, displaces around five tons and has a flat bottom and shallow draft, a detail that allows it to navigate where keel boats cannot pass”.
In the 70s of the 20th century, three thousand moliceiro boats were registered operating in the Ria de Aveiro, but It is estimated that just over 50 vessels remain, half of which are used for tourist exploration in the Ria’s urban canals..
According to the public institute Património Cultural, Portugal has eight events inscribed on the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanitytwo on the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding and a register of Good Safeguarding Practices.
The two other Portuguese entries on the urgent safeguard list are the black clay of Bisalhães and the manufacture of rattles.
