(IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

Póvoa de Varzim, a coastal city in the north of Portugal, is a town that has been occupied for thousands of years. The marks of this settlement are still visible in many areas of this county. Its initial name, Euracini, is evidence of the Roman presence in this territory, although there are no tangible remains of that period. Over time, its landscape has been shaped, and these changes are visible mainly from the 14th century onwards. The 16th century marks the beginning of a more effective occupation of the territory and with a specific location, close to the primitive housing nucleus. The end of this century decisively marks the expansion of the village to the west and the consequent occupation of new areas. From the 1860s onwards it became a famous seaside resort, where many people flock there to spend a few days of leisure and fun. The passage from this location to the seaside village brought with it the stamp of progress, this because, especially in the area close to the beach, buildings appeared that, due to their exterior and interior aesthetics, were, at the time, a novelty in Póvoa de Varzim, until then composed by some houses with ornated facades and by modest fishermen’s houses. It was necessary to wait for the last quarter of the 20th century to see that the harmonious growth carried out until then gave way to an irrational expansion with high costs for the natural landscape. However, from the mid-1990s onwards, an attempt was made to reverse the situation of this poor urban planning, with structuring documents being prepared that allowed the regulation of spatial planning in the urban perimeter of the town of Póvoa de Varzim.