The project can go ahead under an agreement for "planning in the short, medium and long term" that was reached by the municipality and the Northern Regional Directorate of Culture (DRCN) about two years ago, the mayor of Vila Pouca de Aguiar, Alberto Machado, told Lusa.

The plan’s existence now makes it possible to hope that the Tresminas complex can be listed as World Heritage by the United Nations Educational Social and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), he said.

The new centre, funded by the DRCN, is to have a reception area, support rooms, toilet and storage facilities, at a projected cost is €200,000. The lead time is expected to be 365 days.

"It is intended that a year from now we will have a reception centre for visitors, very close to the galleries and complementary to the exhibition route that we have recently set up," Machado said.

The Roman mine complex of Tresminas and that of Las Médulas, in Spain, have since 2017 had an agreement on joint actions to internationalise the areas, on research, communication and appreciation of the Roman legacy in Iberia.

Las Médulas has been a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1997 and the Vila Pouca de Aguiar council wants Tresminas to secure the same classification, as a ‘cultural landscape’.

"Portugal at this time cannot submit applications, because it is part of the jury panel, but the application process is being prepared," Machado said.

Among the factors to be taken into account by the future jury in assessing the application are support infrastructures and the degree of preservation of the site.

The new visitors’ centre is to have "a minimal impact on the landscape", according to the project summary, which cites the careful choice of materials for use in the building, to simplify its execution.

"It will be in reinforced concrete within sight with an interior lining in artifical stone,” it says. “Outside, the building and parking lot will seek to simplify the execution of the works with minimal impact [from] construction."