In statements to the Lusa news agency, Luís Segadães, president of the 7 Wonders of Portugal, explained that this year's edition marks the return of the competition almost 20 years after the first initiative, on 7 July 2007, which aimed to value built heritage and mobilise the Portuguese people around cultural and historical identity.

“For almost 20 years, we have been promoting what we call the great values of national identity. We choose as the theme for each competition, each year, a theme that touches the Portuguese people very deeply and that has to do with their identity, with the values of their land,” he said.

According to Luís Segadães, this edition, which was presented on 17 March in Lisbon, is organised into seven categories: Castles, Religion, History, Great Works, 20th-Century Architecture, 21st-Century Architecture, and Tourism.

“It has seven categories, and these categories receive nominations. We have finished this phase of applications, and the process itself has a first phase involving a panel of experts, followed by a scientific council. Our organisation doesn't choose anything. We delegate to groups that make the selections,” he stated.

According to Luís Segadães, there were more than 650 nominations. The expert panel reduced the list to 147.

“Today, we launched the public vote. The panel of experts reduced the list to 147, with 21 organised for each of the seven major tourist regions of the country: North, Centre, Greater Lisbon, Alentejo, Algarve, Azores, and Madeira. We have 21 heritage sites organised, three for each category,” he indicated.

Luís Segadães explained that, starting 13 June, they will hold roadshows visiting 12 locations across the country, with regional semi-finals and then regional finals, always in a knockout format, until only one contestant from each category in each region remains.

“Then the semi-finals and final will follow, with the final taking place on 12 September,” he said.

The president of the 7 Wonders of Portugal also stated that this year's edition “arises in a particularly sensitive context, as some regions are still recovering from the impacts of the bad weather at the beginning of the year,” due to Storm Kristin.

“We will film one of our programs in Leiria. It will be a good way to first acknowledge what happened and to show the country that it has rebuilt and rehabilitated. We have a program dedicated to this in Leiria, whose castle, for example, suffered damage due to the bad weather on 11 July,” he said, mentioning that TVI is the official television broadcaster of this edition.