Project “Valorizar o Património” rehabilitates the Parish Church of S. Lourenço da Montaria, in Viana do Castelo
The contract for the rehabilitation and conservation of the Parish Church of S. Lourenço da Montaria was inaugurated, as part of the “Valorizar o Património” (Valorizar o Património) program, which had PRODER funding.
The inauguration of the work was attended by the Mayor, José Maria Costa, the Councilor of Territorial Cohesion, Luís Nobre, the Parish Church Factory of S. Lourenço da Montaria, representatives of the parish of Montaria, the local parish priest, as well as the Shares Commission.
Last January, the Municipality of Viana do Castelo and the Parish Church Factory of S. Lourenço da Montaria signed a protocol to prepare an application for community funds for this undertaking. Thus, according to the signed document, the municipality carried out a survey of the technical needs for rehabilitation and conservation of the Parish Church.
The protocol took place bearing in mind that the Cultural Heritage of a territory constitutes its most important identity mark. The conservation, recovery, enhancement or dissemination of this becomes an imperative and also a duty towards the future in transmitting a truly foundational heritage, in addition to playing a fundamental role in the polycentric development of territories and territorial cohesion.
It should be recalled that the Municipality of Viana do Castelo is promoting a comprehensive program for the enhancement of built Heritage, called “Valorizar the Heritage”, whose objectives are to qualify spaces of architectural, historical and artistic value relevant to the territory; boost the cultural potential of these spaces as privileged places for cultural enjoyment; promote and enhance the aforementioned spaces as places of visitation and tourist attraction.
The Religious and Monastic Cultural Heritage is particularly relevant in the municipality of Viana do Castelo due to its antiquity, the exceptionality of its architecture and integrated art, the testimony of other eras and other mentalities and because they are places of enormous potential for the knowledge of science. and culture.
The “Valorizar o Património” program privileges some buildings that are included in this domain of Cultural Heritage and that present some risky or inadequate conditions, namely: risk of physical collapse, conditioned access and circuit, works of art in an advanced state of deterioration, absence of content and signage.
