A test of courage

Sagres. After 15 years, the Forte de Beliche has, like Sleeping Beauty, been woken from its sleep. Once upon a time, guests could eat well and sleep here. But then the small, loss-making, 5-star pousada was closed by the state, given up, forgotten. In the mid-1990s, a landslip underneath the chapel of Henry the Navigator (1391-1460) triggered fears that the whole monument could slide into the sea. The work that is needed to make it geologically safe is today more a question of high architectural art, of the money needed to provide this and of political will.

In the search for identity, a state and its institutions undoubtedly need a certain inner maturity as well. Both the DGEMN*and IPPAR*, which hand in hand repeatedly risk, suppress and forget that identity and their cultural values of national significance owing to lack of money, are grossly negligent and show no vision. The fort was destroyed by the 1755 earthquake and not rebuilt until 1960: something similar is about to be repeated. Day by day, nature is taking back what humans have built on the cliff tops.

Last year, the mayor Adelino Augusto da Rocha Soares had the courage to buy the right from the Portuguese state for the next 20 years to take charge of the small fort which is still in danger of collapsing: it cost 4,000 euros. Close to 20,000 euros have already been invested in an initial restoration. Perhaps the idea of having the Forte de Beliche declared a UNESCO cultural heritage site is coming just in time. What is needed is to secure the chapel’s foundations sustainably and stabilise them in the long term. For this, of course, several million euros of capital will be needed. Anyway, the gates are now open for a – perhaps final – visit.

About the author

Uwe Heitkamp, 53 years old, started working after university in daily newspapers and from 1984 on in public tv broadcasting companies such as WDR (Collogne), NDR (Hamburg), SDR (Stuttgart/Baden-Baden) in the ARD (first programme), wrote several books and directed the cinema movie about the anti nuclear movement in Germany in 1986 (Wackersdorf). After emigration in 1990 he founded 1995 the trilingual weekly printed newspaper “Algarve123”  and later the online edition www.algarve123.com. Heitkamp lives for 25 year in Monchique, Portugal. He loves mountain hiking and swimming in streams and lakes, writes and tells stories of success from people and their sustainable relationship between ecology and economy. His actual film “Revolutionary Roads” tells the 60 minute story of a long walk crossing Portugal. 10 rural people paint a picture of their lives in the hills of the serra and the hinterland. The film captures profound impressions of natural beauty and human life. Along which path is the future of Portugal to be found? (subscribe to ECO123 und watch the documentary in the Mediatec)