Adriana Nogueira, regional director of Algarve Culture, said the DiVaM monument activity programme aims to “attract people to these monuments and explore them to experience the memories the monuments evoke”.


The announcement of the programme coincided with the 500th anniversary of Portuguese discoverer Fernão de Magalhães’ circumnavigation of the globe, giving this year’s edition of the programme its theme-name ‘The Journey’.


Ms. Nogueira estimates the regional directorate will spend some €70,000 on the 2019 programme, but believes the line-up is “very appealing” and the “52 activities until December mean there are fewer weeks to go than activities”.


She says the theme ‘The Journey’, means it was possible to get “very creative with the proposals” that will liven up and provide entertainment at the monuments, and offer visitors a “varied programme” consisting of “lectures, cinema, performances, exhibitions, thematic workshops and music”.


The programme’s goal, she explained, is not to attain a certain number of visitors, but to promote the monuments and thus contribute towards boosting the global number of visitors that annually visit the Algarve’s monuments.


The programme “is a driver for these visits, not only because it provides entertainment, but because in going to a concert [in a monument] people will be visiting a place they otherwise might not”, Ms. Nogueira added.


In related news, a new heritage route has been created in the Algarve, which aims to “uncover the legends and myths” of the historic Moorish occupation of the region. Tourists visiting the Algarve can explore the ‘al-Mutamid route’, which spans the al-Andalus period, which takes its name from the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages.


The route has been co-financed with European funds and its partners in Portugal are the councils of Silves and Tavira.
The project was financed with €212,000 under the Interreg programme, and ultimately aims to span from Aljezur to Cortegana in Andalucia, later being extended from Lisbon to Seville.