Installed in Peniche Fortress, one of the political prisons during the Estado Novo dictatorship (1933-1974), the National Museum of Resistance and Freedom was honored in the Conservation and Adaptive Reuse category. The rehabilitation and adaptation project was led by the architecture firm Ateliê AR4, under architect João Barros Matos.
Inaugurated on April 27, 2024, 50 years after the liberation of political prisoners from the dictatorship, the museum aims to research, preserve, and communicate the national memory related to the resistance against the Portuguese fascist regime, drawing from the memories and experiences of those who fought for freedom and democracy.
The fortress has been classified as a national monument since 1938.
In the Education, Training, and Skills category, the government program “Saber Fazer” was distinguished for its strategy in safeguarding traditional arts and crafts.
This program presents “traditional artisanal production as a viable, sustainable, and relevant sector, aiming to highlight the work of artisans, as well as products, processes, and materials, in their relationship with the sociocultural context and the natural landscape,” according to its website.
Among the crafts included in the program are black clay, embroidery, split willow wood basketwork, cutlery, bobbin lace, Lorvão toothpicks, and the construction of wire violas.
The project “Almalaguês – Weaving the Future with the Tapestry of Time” in Coimbra was recognized in the Citizen Engagement and Awareness category. This project aims to revitalize the traditional weaving of Almalaguês parish, Coimbra, by mobilizing the local community and encouraging active participation, particularly among young people.
The Europa Nostra Awards attracted 251 entries from organizations and individuals across 41 European countries, evaluated by a jury of 11 European cultural heritage experts, divided into category-specific committees.
This year saw an increase of 45 entries from five more countries compared to the previous year.
In each category, projects were distinguished from which a grand winner will be announced on October 13, at a ceremony at the Flagey building in Brussels, attended by Glenn Micallef, European Commissioner for Youth, Culture, and Sport, and Hermann Parzinger, Executive President of Europa Nostra.
The ceremony will be part of the European Cultural Heritage Summit in Brussels, taking place from October 12 to 14.
The winner of the Public Choice Award, which will receive 10,000 euros, will also be announced. The public’s choice is made online until September 12.
The recognized projects are divided among the categories of Conservation and Reuse, Research, Education, Training and Skills, and Citizen Engagement and Awareness.
In the conservation and adaptation to new uses category, besides the National Museum of Resistance and Freedom, are the roof project of the St. Maurice Church tower in Spitz an der Donau, Austria; Antwerp City Hall, Belgium; Hotel Solvay in Brussels; the former Nicosia Municipal Market in Cyprus; Kambones 1615 historic house on the Greek island of Naxos; the Lodz Cultural Complex in Poland; the Gate of Alcalá in Madrid; and Wentworth Woodhouse’s House of Camellias in the UK, a country not associated with the EU’s Creative Europe Program.
In the Research category, the chosen projects were The Heritage Trees from Belgium, Odeuropa, a shared research project by the Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, and the UK; Secrets of Ice, a glacier archaeology program from Norway; and the pan-European project Arab Heritage, coordinated by Spain.
In addition to the “Saber Fazer” program, the Education, Training, and Skills category includes Germany’s European Heritage Volunteer program, the Astra Centre for regional activities and resources in Sibiu, Romania, and Slovakia’s Pró Monumenta, a preventive monument maintenance project.
This category also recognized a project from the Vatican, which is not associated with the Creative Europe Program, the School of Arts and Crafts of the St. Peter’s Factory, in Vatican City.
In the Citizen Engagement and Awareness category, the nine projects include Portugal’s Almalaguês tapestry, “The Art of Protecting [the natural park of] Bedechka” in Stara Zagora, Bulgaria; Baltic 3D Wrecksite Ontology, Finland; the restoration of the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris; the donation campaign “The Culture of Ukraine has no Means of Defence” from Ukraine and Lithuania; the Cultural Heritage Days from Poland; “Hedgehog House, Inventing a Better World” from Serbia; “Casa Batlló: Integrating Neurodiversity into World Heritage” from Barcelona, Spain; and the All Together Festival in Kiev.
In the Heritage Champions category, those recognized were German landscape architect Peter Latz, born in 1939; Inge Bisgaard, born in 1958, curator of the Museum and Archives of the Danish island of Greenland, who already received the Prince Henrik/Europa Nostra Award in 2022; and Moldovan philologist Varvara Buzila, born in 1955, an ethnography specialist.
Moldova is not associated with the Creative Europe Program, being one of the three states, along with the UK and Vatican, not part of the EU but whose projects were distinguished with a Europa Nostra Award.
The Europa Nostra Awards “highlight and disseminate best practices in the area of heritage in Europe, encourage the cross-border exchange of knowledge, and connect heritage stakeholders into broader networks,” as stated in a press release from the organization sent to Lusa.
Europa Nostra, represented in Portugal by the National Culture Center, is presented as the largest heritage advocacy network in Europe, maintaining relations with the European Union, the Council of Europe, and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), among other organizations.
The Europa Nostra Awards were created by the European Commission in 2002 and have been managed by the Europa Nostra organization, currently presided over by Italian opera singer Cecilia Bartoli.
