#BEING

The Public Library of Évora, or "Livraria", in the words of its founder, the Archbishop Frei Manuel do Cenáculo in 1805, is the oldest Portuguese public library, the first to be opened to the public, aiming to provide access to knowledge to the city and to all living here. Since then, it houses the most unexpected and important historical documents, real treasures that attract to the Library and to the city of Évora people from the whole world. The first Portuguese library to open to the public has just (re)opened its doors to the community, after a year of work to restore its building. The director Zélia Parreira hopes that, in 2027, the library will be a more constant presence in the life of the community and that the application for European Capital of Culture can contribute to a more civic participation of everyone in the city's institutions.

Córtex Frontal is a multidisciplinary cultural project created in 2016 in Arraiolos, Alentejo (Portugal), by Mercedes Vidal-Abarca and Nuno Félix da Costa. Córtex Frontal is a space for artist residencies, workshops and exhibitions, and a place to promote the encounter between artists and the local community, where each artist is challenged to offer something to the people and the institutions of Arraiolos. Time is essential for artistic creation; it is probably the most valuable thing in the Alentejo, in the words of Mercedes Vidal-Abarca, for whom Évora's candidacy to become the European Capital of Culture is in itself an opportunity for cultural institutions and agents to get to know each other and to lay the foundations for a network of creation and cultural programming, which is critical to the Alentejo.

Sociedade Harmonia Eborense is an association that is 171 years old. It was born in 1849, in the aftermath of the clashes that opposed liberals and absolutists. Its name – Harmonia - comprises a conciliatory concept on the part of its founders, in the quest for peace among people. It is located in the most central of Évora’s urban spaces, and for over one century and a half it has been a reflection of Évora, with a great capacity to adapt to social and political times and experiences. During all these years, Harmonia has brought together countless people with the purpose of sharing, fostering and preserving the local culture. Pablo Vidal, the current president of Sociedade Harmonia Eborense, believes in Évora’s candidacy to become the European Capital of Culture and considers that it is crucial to the process. It will be an opportunity for local associations, which often find themselves isolated for the sake of survival, to come together and to think together for the common good.

The Almendres Interpretation Centre, in the village of Guadalupe, a few kilometers from Évora, was created in 2019 with the main purpose of raising enthusiasm and passion for Évora’s Prehistory. In addition to supporting visitors to the Almendres cromlech, one of the first examples of monumental architecture in Europe, the largest megalithic site on the Iberian Peninsula and the oldest known in Portugal, the Centre also proposes activities focused on experimental archaeology. We discussed with the archeologist Mário Carvalho the changes that took place on the territory during the Neolithic period, the culture thus created and still present in the Alentejo cultural identity; we discovered how the megalithic landscape connects Évora to Europe, the challenges facing the conservation and the dissemination of the region’s megalithic monuments, among which the Almendres cromlech, the great dolmen of Zambujeiro and the Escoural cave hold an outstanding position.

Oficinas do Convento - A Cultural Association of Art and Communication, it was created by an informal group of artists in 1996, in Montemor-o-Novo, with the aim of rescuing, preserving and re-qualifying the spaces of the Convento de São Francisco through the development of a work focused on Fine Arts. Currently, with a very comprehensive area of action, ranging from multidisciplinary artistic creation to training, programming and research, Oficinas do Convento is an important association which contributes to the affirmation of culture as a development axis of the city and municipality of Montemor-o-Novo, in a close relationship with the local community.

The production of the Estremoz clay figures or "Bonecos de Estremoz", as they are commonly known, is centuries old, with the first archaeological evidence dating back to the seventeenth century. This craftsmanship has its origin rooted in religion. The figures were made by the hands of the "boniqueiras", women who made some articles in clay. Today, their essence represents the whole dimension of Alentejo and its people, in rural and urban living. Classified as UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage, the craftsmanship is a central piece for the development and cultural projection of the municipality of Estremoz.

Among oaks, holm oaks, kermes oaks, arbutus, laurel trees and other tree species, in the protected forest of Tapada dos Veados at Herdade da Mitra (Mitra Centre of the University of Évora), we heard about the cork oak, our national tree and main inhabitant of the Alentejo identity forest. Professor Nuno de Almeida Ribeiro and researcher Constança Camilo-Alves tell us about the features and qualities that have made it a protected tree since the Middle Ages and a world reference as regards the sustainable use of the forest to its fullest. Far beyond their importance for the national economy, these trees are a living cultural heritage reflected in the collective memory of the Alentejo communities, also through their representation in music, poetry, painting and dance, among other forms of artistic expression.

Évora District Archive holds a series of documents that, sought after by people coming to Évora from all over the world, give it an international dimension. It was created in 1912, and is housed at the Colégio do Espírito Santo since 1962. It works daily to catalogue, preserve and archive thousands of kilometres of district documents loaded with history, coming mainly from registry offices and courts. Among a great number documents, dating from the early 14th century to the 21st century, stand out the parchments of the Municipality of Évora, the collection of the convent’s choir books with liturgical music, the baptismal register of King João IV and his daughter Catarina de Bragança, the book of the Brothers of Mercy signed by King Manuel and Queen Leonor. These are documents full of information, memories, stories, to visit and reinvent in cultural activities.

Based in the small village of Cumeada, parish of Reguengos de Monsaraz (Alentejo) Dark Sky® Alqueva is an official observatory created by the association Dark Sky®- Portugal, which connects us to the Universe through solar and astronomical observation. This project was created in 2007 and is devoted to the protection of the night sky, raising awareness for the reduction of light pollution, turning the Alentejo sky into a unique and ideal spot to discover planets, nebulae, galaxies, swarms of stars or even the Lunar craters. In 2011, this sky was certified and recognised by the Starlight Foundation as the first "Starlight Tourism Destination". UNESCO, UNWTO and IAC supported the certification.

The Convent of Nossa Senhora da Saudação, next to the castle of Montemor-o-Novo houses O Espaço Do Tempo - a support structure for creation and artist residencies –allowing for the distancing that the creative process requires. That is what O Espaço do Tempo seeks, a different perspective on what we already know, a look that, through those horizons, searches for forms of inspiration capable of transforming human reality. Replicating, repeating what we know about it – this is not the purpose of O Espaço do Tempo.

The Bonecos de Santo Aleixo are traditional puppets from Alentejo, preserved by the artistic collective CENDREV. They were able to assimilate much of the habits, the music, the rhythms, the dynamics, the humour, the stories that were, that pass by, that were passing by. The fact that we can hear them today is the result of an oral tradition that found its way to resist in the community, becoming the voice of a place, of a region, which, in this case, expresses its feelings manipulating puppets.

The Pro-Évora Group is the oldest association in the country (1919-2021) working in the protection of cultural heritage. From the active role promoting protection to the awareness of the young generations, the Pro-Évora Group portrays the resilient work of an association rooted in the conviction that a society without history and culture will not be able to understand the challenges it will face in the future. In this journey framed by the streets and places of Évora, Marcial Rodrigues, Nuno Lecoq and Celestino David lead us through the challenges and threats against architectural, landscape and natural heritage values, prompting us to reflect on the intersection of heritage with other dimensions of the city, such as social cohesion and spatial planning.