Landscape and Cultural Heritage from Portugal: Images of National Resurgence

Abstract

Shall we consider the contemporary Portugal as a result of the conquests from the so called Carnation Revolution (Revolução dos Cravos)? If we only contemplate the case of architecture, we may question if this discipline has regained its disciplinary autonomy, building the wanted democratization of space and also determine if it has been responsible for the memorization of many of the projects conducted in the post 25^th April times. Although we consider this inquiry as adequate, it is not our purpose to pursue an exhaustive analysis of the current situation, although we can accept that it denotes the influence of more than forty years of Salazarism. Between the end of the thirties and beginning of the forties, we face a period of reinforcement and consolidation of the ideas outlined by Oliveira Salazar for the Portuguese Empire. During that period the tangible or intangible image of the territory has played a major role in the announced material, moral and national restoration. Based mainly on publications edited by SPN, namely Images Portugaises [1939], Paisagem e Monumentos de Portugal (1940), Obras Públicas: Caderno do Ressurgimento Nacional [1943], as well as with other correlated works, we will demonstrate how, short before the advent of World War II, it was already possible to discover in the Portuguese landscape a significant array of distinctive features of the Salazarist project, whose memory still remains today in different places.