Cooking Portugal

Cooking Portugal

Portuguese Sidewalk Intangible Cultural Heritage

Portuguese Sidewalk Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO? Calçada Portuguesa Association and Lisbon City Council make a proposal to enroll the “Calçada Portuguesa Art and Know-How” in the National Cultural Heritage Inventory. 

The formalization of the proposal was announced in a ceremony that honored the late Mestre Calceteiro Jorge Duarte and the Lisbon pavers. In the short term, revealed the promotor of the initiative, it is also intended to submit an application from the Portuguese sidewalk to Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (UNESCO), similarly to what was done with Fado.

Portuguese Sidewalk Intangible Cultural Heritage

Lisbon city council assumes an “absolute commitment” to this project. The whole process of improving the object of the candidacy will be important, and not just obtaining the distinction. We have more and better sidewalks. The improvement in accessibility justifies the occasional replacement with more comfortable floors, but it does not prevent the widening of the Portuguese sidewalk in areas where it is justified. However it will be important that remains the will of putting Portuguese sidewalk Intangible Cultural Heritage on the next years. 

Homage to the activity of Calceteiros

The municipality’s initiative follows a process that began in 2017, with the installation of a monument to honor the paving stone in Praça dos Restauradores. The sculptural ensemble, initially placed on Rua da Vitória, and which resulted from a proposal by the municipality to honor the activity of pavers “through a monument that represents this art”, was then removed from the public space for recovery, as a result of vandalism.

Lisbon’s identity brand, Calçada Portuguesa – the art of sculpting stone, combined with the creation of figurative compositions – is pointed out by many as one of the reasons for the uniqueness of its light. In addition to Portugal, the Portuguese sidewalk is present in places such as Spain, Gibraltar, Belgium, Czech Republic, China, Macau, Malaysia, Timor-Leste, Angola, Mozambique, South Africa, Brazil, United States, and Canada.

Portuguese sidewalks you will be able to appreciate during your visit to Lisbon, however, it is also present in many other Portuguese cities. It is common to see while walking in the main streets of Lisbon, for example, Praça do Pedro V, Avenida da Liberdade, among many others on the Portuguese capital. In fact, they are one of the subjects in many walking and food tours in Lisbon. We hope that Portuguese Sidewalk Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO become a reality. 

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