Lisbon candidate Baixa Pombalina for UNESCO World Heritage Site | Patrimony
This Friday, the Lisbon City Council formalizes the candidacy of Baixa Pombalina as a World Heritage Site, with the request to the National Commission of UNESCO, highlighting the “exceptionality of this historic area” and the contributions to the history of humanity.
“We are very committed to obtaining the classification of Baixa Pombalina as a World Heritage Site. Lisbon is a unique city: historic and innovative, traditional and cosmopolitan, with a unique identity, but always open to the world”, says the mayor of Lisbon , Carlos Moedas (PSD), quoted in a statement sent to Lusa by the municipality.
The mayor highlights the city’s heritage assets, “in particular those that recall the impressive capacity of response that the Portuguese people had to the earthquake of 1755, one of the most destructive ever”, considering that “they are endowed with an exceptional universal value and deserve be distinguished and protected”.
THE application process from Baixa Pombalina to the homage awarded by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), to protect sites of exceptional universal value, took place during the year 2022 and the request will be formalized this Friday with the communication of the interest in having this monumental ensemble inscribed on the Portuguese Indicative List.
The Lisbon City Council considers it “fundamental” to zone inscription on the Portuguese Indicative List, which is revised periodically, so that “a future classification is possible, justified by the exceptional nature of this historic area and its contributions to human history”.
Carlos Moedas says that Baixa Pombalina “is a unique monumental site”, where “multiple buildings of recognized historical and heritage value are located, which represent different eras and retain their credibility”, noting that there are more than a dozen national monuments , as well as various complexes, monuments and properties of public interest.
One of the properties is the Torreão Poente at Praça do Comércio, “a building that in itself is a museum piece, dating from the final period of reconstruction of the Baixa after the 1755 earthquake, and which will be subject to requalification to house a nucleus of the Museum Lisbon”, informs the municipality.
“The World Heritage List already includes some historic centres, even Enlightenment features, such as Bordeaux, São Luís and São Petersburg, but the inclusion of Lisbon would significantly enrich this list. It should be remembered that Baixa Pombalina, unlike many historic centers that were built from scratch, were born on a palimpsest of rubble, regularizing spaces and integrating some of the remaining constructions.
Lisbon, indicates the municipality, is considered the first modern city in the West, which influenced the creation of other important cities in Europe and the world by the Baixa Pombalina revolution, completed three years after the 1755 earthquake.
In addition, he adds, “the value of this asset has not stagnated over time, maintaining a current, functional and adaptable model to new uses”.
Reinforcing that it was in Baixa Pombalina that the city knew how to show itself creative at various levels, the Chamber pointed out several benefits of the candidacy for World Heritage, namely in rehabilitation, the possibility of tax incentives and benefits, free of fees, creation of a bank of materials and a pool of designers with rehabilitation experience; in the protection and conservation of the built complex and “at the level of education, for the possibility of promoting campaigns of dissemination and information about the heritage”.