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“Photograph forgotten public buildings. Locate them. Say what you know and for now what you think can be used ”. The challenge is launched to all Portuguese and aims to result in a collective map of forgotten heritage. More than referring to old schools, forest houses or abandoned barracks, this initiative aims to spark ideas and create conditions for their recovery.
All contributions are welcome, including the dissemination of good examples, buildings that have been restored for functions other than the original ones. The project “Are we going to recover the forgotten heritage?” is already collecting “collaborators” through Facebook and Instagram.
The idea arose as a result of a publication made on social networks by the MEP and former minister Maria Manuel Leitão Marques. A militant in the defense of abandoned public heritage, he has been collecting photographs of forgotten buildings for some time. By sharing a photo of an old school in Alquerubim on her Facebook page, the former ruler was soon provoked to turn that alert into a cause.
José Carlos Mota, a researcher at the University of Aveiro and an active member of various civic actions and projects, challenged her to follow up on a project that could “mobilize citizens for this national cause”, convinced that this mapping can lead “to communities to reflect on their heritage, in their neighborhoods or cities, and on their future ”.
The initiative becomes even more relevant at a time when discussions will begin on the application of funds from the next Community Support Framework. “I am afraid that, with the funds that will arrive in the next multiannual financial support framework, we will choose the easiest one, let’s do it again instead of having the trouble of thinking about a project to recover,” says the MEP, recalling bet. who followed, in 2007, as Secretary of State, the second generation of citizen stores.
“Priority was given to municipalities that, associated with the creation of the store, reused unused goods or recovered abandoned goods,” he recalls. The result? “Beautiful public buildings were recovered, such as a Fiscal Guard post in Campo Maior, the slaughterhouse in Santarém, a stately chapel in Sátão, a school in Valpaços, among other examples,” he says.
The mentors of the project “Are we going to recover the forgotten heritage?” They believe that there is still a lot of heritage that Portugal has forgotten abroad, waiting to be recovered and to take on new life. The Revive program is already helping, but its focus is primarily on “grand buildings and monuments.” “But these little things, which many times they don’t even know whose they are, are kept out of sight, out of mind,” says Maria Manuel Leitão Marques.
Create conditions for recovery
After receiving the contributions from the public and adding them to the collective map, the project mentors undertake, whenever possible, to forward these alerts to the entity that has the protection of the heritage in question. “When they are buildings of the central administration, the abandonment is usually motivated by ignorance, by the distance”, observes Maria Manuel Leitão Marques. As for the municipalities, there was a tendency to “show new construction, instead of old construction with a washed face”.
Therefore, it is important to change paradigms and start thinking about reusing existing buildings. Through public or private initiatives or by citizens themselves. “In many places in Europe we are witnessing citizen initiatives that take over spaces”, highlights José Carlos Mota, noting that this project can also be an “opportunity to challenge civil society to mobilize in the dynamization of these spaces” .
“It is time to mobilize citizens who often want to do things and do not always find the most favorable context,” he urges, giving a concrete example: “in Aveiro, where civil society has incredible dynamics, many times we need spaces to do things and there are none ”. It is then when there are abandoned buildings in the city and in the region, the old São Bernardo health center is one of the most referenced cases.
