page_title: Classification of Built Heritage in Portugal
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Classification of Built Heritage in Portugal / History
caption_attribution_description: English: John V of Portugal (1689-1750) Hd Português: D João V (1689-1750) Hd
context_page_description: The Classification of Built Heritage in Portugal corresponds to a group or independent Portuguese archeological civic, military and religious cultural properties deemed to be of sufficient historical value by the Direção-Geral do Património Cultural for protection and conservation. The precise rules for the classification and protection of cultural properties are defined in a heritage registry, that includes inventories of the natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable properties of a cultural, esthetic, social, technical and scientific nature.
context_section_description: From the beginning of the 19th century, the Portuguese State formally began to affirm the need to protect cultural heritage, that had its antecedents in the 18th century. The first conscientious move came from King John V, who induced the Academia Real de História (Royal Academy of History) to inventory and conserve "the ancient Monuments that existed and they could discover in the Kingdom, when it was dominated by the Phoenicians, Greeks, Penos, Romans, Goths and Arab" (decreed on 20 August 1721). This decree reinforced the need to safeguard the Portuguese monuments by determining its condition, even if it was in a state of ruin, but did not require their classification. Following the destruction caused by 1755 Lisbon earthquake, there was a comprehension that works of art and buildings needed to be conserved owing to their fragility (exposed by the ruin caused by the earthquake).
  Later, the extinction of the religious orders in 1834, which resulted in the expropriation of lands and buildings by the State, helped to motivate further the need to establish an organ of the State, or association, that could protect and conserve cultural possessions. At that time various personalities, such as Almeida Garrett (1799-1854) and Alexandre Herculano (1810-1877), alerted the public to the need for legislative protection for built heritage. Alexandre Herculano, for his part, authored various pioneering texts for the movement, writing four works on monuments, published in the magazine "O Panorama", between 1838 and 1839. In 1863, theAssociação dos Arquitetos Civis Portugueses (Portuguese Association of Civil Architects), later the Real Associação dos Arquitetos Civis e Arqueológos Portugueses (RAACAP) (Portuguese Royal Association of Civil Architects and Archaeologists), presided by Joaquim Possidónio Narciso da Silva (1806-1896), took on the role of intervention. In 1880, the RAACAP published a report that was commissioned by the Ministério de Obras Publicas (Ministry of Public Works) that suggested why some properties of a cultural heritage should be considered national monuments. They divided those buildings and structures into six groups: art, buildings that were significant in art history, military monuments, statues, monuments and commemorative arches, and pre-historic monuments. This was the first uniform, systematic process to define possessions as important national treasures needing protection.
  The first legal definition of a national monument occurred on 27 February 1894. By the beginning of the 20th century, a concrete classification act emerged on 24 October 1901; it was the first legal framework to explicitly define what was national heritage. This decree gave the Conselho dos Monumentos Nacionais (National Monuments Council), of the Direção-Geral das Obras Públicas e Minas (Directorate-General of Public Works and Mines), presided by Joaquim Possidónio Narciso da Silva, the mission to classify national monuments. As a legal document, it required the establishment of criteria for classifying built heritage, that included historic, artistic and archeological value. Beginning with the Castle of Elvas in 1906, 14 other buildings were classified as national monuments: the Monastery of Batalha, Monastery of Santa Maria de Belem, the Convent of Christ, the Monastery of Alcobaça, the Convent of Mafra, the Old Cathedral of Coimbra, Cathedral of Guarda, Cathedral of Lisbon, Cathedral of Évora, Church of Santa Cruz of Coimbra, the Basilicia of Coração de Jesus, the Tower of São Vicente, Roman ruins of the Temple of Évora and the ruins of the Church of Nossa Senhora do Carmo. Four years later, the remaining buildings identified by the RAACAP in 1880 (approximately 467 structures) were classified in this framework; this represented the conscious understanding of what was a built heritage (and the State's role in its protection) and identified that conditions existed to create laws, institutions and criteria for protecting national patrimony.
  On 18 December 1924, it became obligatory (under decree 1/700) that a partnership was neces
caption: King D. John V of Portugal, first to decree an inventory of ancient built heritage in Portuguese territory
exif: {"Image Software": "Google", "Image Artist": "Jos\u00e9 Bazt\u00e1n Lacasa", "Image Copyright": "\u00a9Museo del Prado 2009", "Image ExifOffset": "114", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF Tag 0x9009": "[10, 9, 144, 1, 1, 168, 1, 1, 192, 1, 1]", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1455", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1600"}