The Plan was recently submitted for public debate, which ended on Monday. Included in the Plan was the 21-metre tower which would have functioned as a viewpoint offering birdseye panoramas of the city’s historic area and of its cubist architecture.
However, public opposition led the council to reconsider the project and “remove it from the Historic Area’s Detailed Plan, without abdicating, in future, of the creation of a structure that will allow the people of Olhão and its tourists to see this characteristic mark of the historic centre” Olhão Mayor António Pina explained.
He added: “The project for the tower has already had the merit of getting the people of Olhão talking about it. There is also much to say about cubist architecture, but Olhão does not have a place that allows this trademark of the historic centre to be seen.”
António Pina hopes that discussion on the subject will allow for a spot to be found outside the proposed plan and thus fulfil the objective.
“We are going to discuss it and see how it can be done. An alternative would be to create conditions in the church tower to enable it”, he suggested, stressing that nothing as yet has been decided and that debate is “important” for a consensus to be reached.
According to architect Filipe Monteiro, one of the opponents of the construction of the tower, the opinion of a large majority of people who participated in the public discussion period of the proposal is that a “proper” use should be made of the building initially planned for demolition to make room for the tower.
A petition launched against the overhaul of Olhão Historic Centre has so far garnered over 2,000 signatures.
In total, 2,061 signed the document which objects to five main aspects of the council’s Plan, among them the 21-metre tower.
Other main bones of contention were the change of the height and the number of floors in existing buildings and/or to be rebuilt, as well as the existing cross sections of the streets; the removal of much of the historically important and traditional, patterned calçadas (cobblestone paving); the installation of inappropriate modern lighting and seating and the building of a large new cultural centre at the edge of town, instead of re-instating the much-loved Recreativa in the Av. da Republica.
“Olhão is a small city in the Eastern Algarve of Portugal, with a peculiar authentic and unique architecture which has kept a quite human scale. Major attractions include the cubist style architecture of the old town which was developed through trading links with North Africa and the narrow cobbled streets using the traditional technique of calçadas”, the petition explains, elaborating: “The municipality has introduced a plan for the renewal of the old city centre which will destroy the charm and character of the architectural and urban patterns (...) We need a maximum of support to stop this plan which will be funded by European Funds.”