“The Government is preparing to set up a Working Group for the Enhancement of Portuguese Pavement Layers and Portuguese Pavement. The initiative aims to protect, dignify and ensure the continuity of this intangible cultural heritage, which is unique in the world and a candidate for classification by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity,” an official source from Margarida Balseiro Lopes’ ministry told Lusa.

The working group will comprise representatives appointed by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport and the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security, and will have six months to submit a final report, starting on the date the Government’s order comes into force.

According to the Government, “this group will have the mission of analysing the reality of the pavers, presenting concrete proposals and making legislative recommendations to ensure the safeguarding, enhancement and sustainability of the profession and Portuguese paving”.

Listed in the national inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage since 2021 as in need of urgent safeguarding, at the proposal of the Portuguese Calçada Association, this practice was the subject of a 2018 resolution by the Assembly of the Republic, which recommended the adoption by the Government, "in partnership with local authorities, [of] policies for the conservation of Portuguese paving that minimise its degradation, without prejudice to the incorporation of materials that improve its mobility, grip and comfort, both in historic areas and in newer areas".

This recommendation already included the proposal to promote “the application of Portuguese cobblestones to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, given their internationally recognised uniqueness”.

In March last year, the application to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) was submitted to the National Commission, involving the Portuguese Cobblestone Association, with more than 50 cobblestone layers, the collaboration of eight municipalities – Braga, Estremoz, Faro, Funchal, Lisbon, Ponta Delgada, Porto de Mós and Setúbal – and the support of more than 20 national public and private institutions.

"Calçada Portuguesa is a form of paving production and maintenance using traditional know-how that is in sharp decline due to the advanced age of the holders of this intangible heritage. The art of paving is ancient, but the production of Calçada Portuguesa began as a specific technique in the first half of the 19th century in Lisbon, [...] spreading throughout the country and across several continents," according to the documentation in the national inventory of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

With raw materials supplied by stone extractors and processors, this work is carried out on the ground by pavers “with their mastery, through a living tradition, passed down from parents to children or acquired as apprentices, in the exercise of their profession with other pavers”.

"The hard work, which is carried out at any time of the year, the low pay and some social stigma associated with those who produce it, have, however, discouraged younger people from taking up this activity, while the master pavers are gradually disappearing. It is therefore urgent to promote the knowledge associated with Calçada Portuguesa by enhancing the status of those who possess this knowledge: the pavers," states the same text in the national inventory.

“If Lisbon had 400 active pavers in 1927, this number fell to less than 30 in 1979 and today there are just over a dozen (in addition to four street repairers), all of whom are elderly and suffering from rapid deterioration in their physical condition, which reveals a clear trend towards the imminent extinction of this traditional technique,” according to the same document, dated 2020 and very focused on Lisbon.

In addition to Portugal, Portuguese paving can be found in parts of Spain, Gibraltar, Belgium, the Czech Republic, China, particularly in Macau, Malaysia, East Timor, Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, Brazil, the United States and Canada.