Historical Route of the Lines of Torres Vedras wons the Europa Nostra Awards

On May 5th, the Historical Route of the Lines of Torres Vedras was represented at the ceremony organized by the the European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage Europa Nostra Awards in Vienna (Austria) by the Town Councilor Ana Umbelino from the Municipality of Torres Vedras, which received on behalf of the HRLTV the distinction in the category of Conservation.

For the award the jury took into account several factors, such as: the importance of preserving this military structure, the role it played in the Portuguese and European history; numerous inter advantages to the different authorities involved throughout HRLTV; and the possibility that the new route set offers to encourage a new audience to discover the region.

The option of a contemporary architecture project for interpretation centers was also highly appreciated by the jury, which established the relationship between the past and the present.

Portugal won two awards: one to the Historical Route of the Lines of Torres Vedras (Intermunicipal Platform comprising the municipalities of Arruda dos Vinhos, Loures, Mafra, Sobral de Monte Agraço, Torres Vedras and Vila Franca de Xira), in Category 1 (Conservation) and the other award was given to the radio show "Encontros com o Património", a partnership between the General-Direction of Cultural Heritage and TSF Radio on the category 4 (education, training and awareness).

The 27 winning projects within 4 different categories were selected from 169 applications accepted from 31 countries.