Remember the festivities of Viana do Castelo in the Museum of Decorative Arts

For the first time in 248 years, Viana do Castelo will not celebrate on the streets due to restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The Romaria d’Agonia that will take place between the 19th and 23rd of August will therefore be quite different.

“This year we are going to feel the pilgrimage, but for the year, we will all be experiencing it, as always,” says António Cruz, president of the Romaria d’Agonia Festival Commission, in a statement.

Making the romaria in honor of Nossa Senhora da Agonia feel precisely the objective of the painting exhibition “Pintar a Festa”, open to the public until August 30, at the Museum of Decorative Arts.

The exhibit, on display at the Carolino Ramos Gallery of the municipal museum, presents 19 different views of the city’s festivals.

The painting exhibition brings together paintings by artists who painted the queen of romarias, bringing together names such as Claro Fângio, Joaquim Lopes, Alberto de Souza, Carolino Ramos, Araújo Soares, Manuela Pantoja Rojão, António Coelho de Figueiredo, David Lima, Puskas, Rui Pinto , Mário Emílio, Hélder Carvalho, Rego Meira, Isaura Xavier de Campos, Mariana Homem de Melo, Carlos Basto, Juvenal Ramos, Maria Artemisa de Carvalho and also Aníbal Alcino.

The exhibition presents works from the collection of the Viana do Castelo City Council by different artists, with different paths and aesthetic solutions, united by great affection, by the party and by the city, registered in the palette of warm colors that highlight the various iconic paintings of the romaria.

“This set of works is, therefore, representative of the production of contemporary Portuguese art from the modernist period of the 1930s and the beginning of the 1990s. The exhibition includes five paintings that, at the time, were chosen for the official poster of Romaria d’Agonia”, explains the municipality in a statement.

The exhibition is part of the celebrations of the 97 years of existence of the Museum of Decorative Arts, marked this month.

In 2020, due to the outbreak of the new coronavirus, the main figures of the five days of the Romaria d’Agonia, between August 19 and 23, will be celebrated in digital format, through radio, television and audiovisual and technological means.

Only the 20th of August, dedicated to the patron saint of men of the sea, will be celebrated in person, in the church of Nossa Senhora d’Agonia, but with limitations determined by rules issued by the health authorities and by the Portuguese Episcopal Conference regarding liturgical celebrations.