The Regional Directorate for Culture of the North, the Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage and the Association of Friends of the Coliseum of Porto have formalized a 300,000 euro protocol for urgent work on the equipment’s roof, it was announced today.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Culture sent to the press today, the government is “guaranteeing the transfer of 150,000 euros for the rehabilitation of the roof”, with the aim of “safeguarding and enhancing the Coliseu do Porto, through a priority intervention program”.
According to an official source from the ministry led by Pedro Adão e Silva, the remaining contributions will come from the Porto City Council (100,000 euros) and a number of institutions such as the Porto Commercial Association, the Brotherhood of Clerics and other individual and collective contributions (50,000 euros).
At the same time, according to the statement, “in 2024, the Ministry of Culture will also allocate, through a Financial Support Protocol, the value of 200,000 euros for the production of activities at the Coliseu do Porto”.
For the Minister of Culture, Pedro Adão e Silva, quoted in the statement, “the Coliseu do Porto is a unique institution in the region with strong social roots and a diversified cultural program,” and it is the ministry’s responsibility to “support and help find solutions to ensure the future” of the facility.
On October 9, the president of the Associação Amigos do Coliseu do Porto, Miguel Guedes, considered the work to be “very important for the present and for the projection of the future of the Coliseu do Porto”.
“We’ve been talking about replacing the roof of the Coliseum for many years, it’s one of the major structural problems in this house,” he said.
In order to carry out the work to replace the Coliseum’s roof, Miguel Guedes highlighted the participation and support of the Porto City Council, the Ministry of Culture, the Porto Commercial Association, the Clérigos, some individual contributions and the “effort and contribution” of the Coliseum itself.
Still to be defined is the carrying out of fundamental structural work on the equipment, whose application for European funds had been approved by some municipalities in the Porto Metropolitan Area (AMP), a partner of the Associação Amigos do Coliseu do Porto.
Last week, seven of the 17 AMP municipalities voted against the proposal to contribute to the rehabilitation of the Coliseu do Porto, which had been approved “unanimously by those present” at a working meeting of the Porto Metropolitan Council on October 20.
Following this development, the president of the Associação Amigos do Coliseu do Porto (Friends of the Porto Coliseum Association) asked for a consensus in the AMP on the co-funding of the institution’s rehabilitation works, thus guaranteeing its application for European funds.
“It is therefore of the utmost urgency that the municipalities of the Porto Metropolitan Area, the AACP’s reference member, assume their responsibilities towards a facility that is also their heritage and that serves the entire region,” insists Miguel Guedes.