There is still no solution in sight for Silves’ cork museum and rundown Fábrica do Inglês complex. Last Friday, it was revealed that time had run out for a bid to classify the complex as a ‘Monument of Public Interest’.
Says Lusa news agency, the bid expired as it was not approved in time due to a lack of human resources at the national board of cultural heritage (DGPC).
“However, we have already presented a new bid,” said Leonor Medeiros, president of the Portuguese association of industrial archaeology (APAI).
If approved, the bid would grant a protection status to the complex and prevent any kind of development or destruction inside it. Plans for the complex to be turned into a supermarket were rumoured a few years ago, but Silves mayoress Rosa Palma guaranteed at the time that this was not an option.
The Fábrica do Inglês opened in 1999 and became an important cultural hub for the town, hosting all kinds of festivities while also being the location of the town’s decade-old cork museum. However, the complex went bankrupt in 2010. The museum’s assets were picked up in a public auction in 2014 by Grupo Nogueira, while the complex’s buildings were taken over by state-bank Caixa Geral de Depósitos.
It has been almost a decade since the complex closed down and APAI says it is “fundamental” to do something soon to breathe new life into it.
“It is not just about the building and its history, but also about the museum and its assets,” Medeiros says.
She also revealed that APAI met with the DGPC in September and received “an apology” from the board’s president, who said that the DGCP “lacks staff and does not have the resources to carry out the procedures and field work that are necessary”.
Now that a new bid has been presented, it remains to be seen if this one will be approved within the deadline.
