It is necessary to save the wall and the guardhouse of the Baluarte do Livramento
When one of them sent me the text of the Lisbon Metro and the details of the future Red Line stations, asking me to observe where it was, with special attention, the marking of the location of the Alântara Metro station, I was scared to death and feel a deep pain of soul, because it seemed that the subway carriages, moving at great speed, pre-set to slaughter my body tearing my bowels.
After this moment of surprise, amazement and distress, I came to myself not wanting to believe what I had just read. No, it couldn’t be true, because no one in their right mind would allow such recklessness to be committed.
Immediately afterwards, I remembered that, when I visited the trigonometric landmark that marks the geodesic center of mainland Portugal, located in Serra de Melriça, near Vila de Rei, in the district of Castelo Branco, the tourist guide informed us that, in the past, , without specifying the date, a contractor’s request had authorized the creation of the provisional mark inserted there, which at the time marked with the exactitude of the trigone mark, in order to be easier, faster and cheaper. Needless to say, this authoritarian was ignored.
I remember that episode that it seems to me that whoever outlined the route of the Metro must not have realized that he would have to tear down a large wall of the Baluarte do Livramento, a military construction built in the 17th century, one of the surviving bulwarks that, in the Restoration wars, of Independence (1640-1668), was part of the defensive line of the city of Lisbon. Worse still or ignored that, possibly, with trepidation of the works for works, they would probably survive.
Just as human beings live clinging to their memories, so too, each house, each neighborhood, each city, each country, and the entire humanity has marks of its identity that, as part of the collective memory, we are obliged to preserve, under pity that we can be accused of destroying the foundations of life.
As the Baluarte do Livamento is part of the collective memory of Portugal, and also part of National Heritage, it was recognized as part of a Property of Public Interest.
Although at the Lisbon Municipal Assembly, which met on May 9, 2017, with unanimous party approval, it was recommended to the Lisbon City Council that, in addition to adopting measures to study and preserve archaeological findings in the important construction works of the future CUF Hospital, on Avenida 24 de Julho, the Bastion of Livramento would also be valued.
Currently, it is in the Baluarte do Livramento that the Casa de Goa works, which strives to keep Goa alive and we can never forget that Goa was the capital and the lighthouse that illuminated the Portuguese Empire of the East.
I am pleased to remember that Dr. Carlos Moedas, in his inauguration speech as the new Mayor of Lisbon, called for the well-known involvement of people for the future of Lisbon, saying that “I would like the city that takes care of who needs it”, also stating that “I will not be a cabinet president. I will be out there listening to people and working with you”.
Well, Mr Mayor, as a founding member of the Casa de Goa, lieutenant chairman of its committee, first chairman of the general meeting and having also belonged to its governing bodies, installed as I calculate that you should not get to know your thymus, gaze at the location of the Metro station, venomous, visit the facilities of Casa de Goa, see with your own the wall and the guardhouse of the Baluarte do Livrar now in Defend a simple identity of Lisbon identified as danger of identity, of the authors who identify themselves and the location of identification with impunity in a time of transformation, as danger of identity, of the authors who carry out the identification of location with impunity in a time of barbarity.