Opening - Hydrographic Institute on International Day of Monuments and Sites

Ex. Mr. Vice Admiral Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, Deputy Admiral Mendes Calado,

Ex. Mr. Director General of National Defense Resources, Dr. Alberto Coelho,

Ex. Mr. Chairman of the Board of Auditors of the National Defense Course, Dr. António Vilar,

Ex. Mr. Vice Admiral Sarmento Gouveia, former Director-General of the Hydrographic Institute,

Ex. General officers, leaders and representatives of public bodies, universities, research centres and cooperative partners,

Distinguished guests,

Ladies and gentlemen

Welcome to the Hydrographic Institute on International Monuments and Sites Day. Since 2014, the Hydrographic Institute has been associated with this initiative created on April 18, 1982 by the International Council of Monuments and Sites and supported by the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage. This movement was approved by UNESCO the following year, with the aim of raising awareness of the diversity and vulnerability of the heritage, as well as the need for its protection and appreciation. Celebrating the national heritage, we also celebrate international solidarity around knowledge, safeguarding and enhancing the world's heritage.

The theme that was proposed to us this year 2017 is the “Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Tourism”. We tried to meet this challenge with two thematic presentations and a photographic exhibition.

I begin by thanking Professor Dr. José Sarmento de Matos, an olyssipographer of reference, who knows better than anyone the history of Lisbon and in particular that of the neighborhood of Lapa, built around the Convent of Trinas, for having made himself available, despite personal difficulties, to be with us today to tell us precisely this strong cultural link of the convent to the current parish of Estrela. 

I also thank Mrs. Catarina Cardoso, Deputy Director General of National Defense Resources, who, in the impossibility of the presence of Lieutenant Colonel Fernando da Luz Costa, for reasons of illness, accepted the challenge of addressing the other component of this year’s theme, tourism, and we thought it was right to do so in a particular and innovative way that is the new perspective in vogue of “military tourism”.

And as they say that “Culture is what remains in man when he has already forgotten everything else” we have a photographic exhibition proposal that shows how images stimulate our collective memory, or our personal imagination, and so are an important vehicle for promoting culture. This exhibition is only possible thanks to the estate that Manuel Santos Estevens left us that from 1939 until the 1950s photographed not only the Convent of the Trinas but also the entire surrounding space, as well as numerous places in our country from 1982.

I take this opportunity to greet Mrs Maria Beatriz Estevens, widow of Manuel Santos Estevens, whom we thank for all this legacy.

The exposure we propose is almost a time travel, at an apex from the same focal point we can see two separate visions for approximately 75 years. The photographs of the 1940s of the last century are by Manuel Santos Estevens and the current form worked by the technicians of the IH. This exhibition will be open to the public until May 5.

But these photographs serve to much more than revive our memory or stimulate our imagination, they have also served as a reference for the Hydrographic Institute to recover and maintain the layout of the building of the Convent of the Trinas, maintaining the tradition of the Armed Forces, especially the Navy which celebrates the 700 years since its foundation, to proudly preserve the legacy entrusted to them.

In the case of the Convent of the Trinas the legacy is not the Hydrographic Institute, it is, in particular, the people of the Neighborhoods that today are the Star and therefore, taking advantage of the presence of the President of the Junta de Freguesia da Estrela ( / of the representative of the Junta de Freguesia) we request the wide dissemination with the invitation to visit the exhibition and the convent.

Good morning, everyone!