“For many years, a solution has been sought for the old facilities of the Aqualine water park, in Altura, which closed a few decades ago”, reads a statement from the municipality in the district of Faro.

According to the local authority, the promoter of the small projects “sought to implement the Alto da Cruz Detailed Plan with the Castro Marim Municipal Council, proposing to convert around 18 hectares into a tourism area”.

However, Castro Marim Council understood that it would be “more interesting, less intrusive and more linked to the confined strategy for the territory, not to increase the construction density as the aforementioned Detailed Plan would imply”.

Thus, after several work meetings, and in agreement with the promoter, three small rural hotels were approved, which will maintain the same type of land use in that space and also all the trees.

In this way, the project will not bring “more urban burden to the coastal territorial area” of the municipality of Castro Marim.

“The rural tourism units will be dispersed, each one based on the facilities and pre-existing features in the entire surrounding area, which will bring a differentiated tourist offer in line with the low density of the territory”.

The old water park opened in July 1988 and the last bathing season it operated was in 1993.

That year, two children died in the space of two days at Aquaparque, in Lisbon.

After the deaths, the regulations and operation of water parks were changed, requiring changes, which led to the closure of several parks.