“This is a project started more than a decade ago, to create an attraction to visit one of the most visited monuments in the country”, Adriana Nogueira, Regional Director of Culture of the Algarve, told Lusa.

The opening of the Interpretive and Exhibition Center of the Fortaleza de Sagres, in the municipality of Vila do Bispo, in the district of Faro, is the culmination of works which began in 2012 and were revised in 2018, “to reassess some of the technical parts”, noted the official.

The overall cost of the investment was around 1.5 million euros, with a contribution of around one million euros from community funds, through the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Tourism Intervention (PIT) and Public Investment programs of Tourist Interest for the Algarve (PIPITAL).

Installed in a two-story building, the center houses the Interpretive Center on the lower floor, “with a permanent exhibition in various dimensions, interactive and multimedia, from the interpretation of the territory to the various pronunciations of the Portuguese language in the world”, she pointed out.

“Different moments in the history of that territory can be known, from Infante D. Henrique, the expansion of the East, the cult of São Vicente, maps of the time and where a cut of part of a ship with spices is also presented”, described Adriana Nogueira .

According to the regional director of Culture of the Algarve, it is, “in essence, a multisensory exhibition, where there are games of light and you can smell the smells”.

The upper floor is intended for temporary exhibitions, a space that will be promoted by the Center for Research in Arts and Communication of the University of Algarve (CIAC), with pieces of contemporary art.

“On the first floor we wanted to do something different, with temporary exhibitions, an average of four to five months each, in order to diversify the offer and increase the attractiveness of the space”, she noted.