Mister Mayor,
Mister Speaker of the Municipal Assembly,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
People of Faro,

Portugal meets in Faro, and the capital of the Algarve, which celebrates four hundred and seventy years as a city, welcomes us in a festive mood.

For it was here, in the southernmost point of the continent, that in the ides of 1249 we ended the re-conquering of our Country and defined the extent of our territory. Faro is a national symbol of integrity and of completed work. Thus a finest reason, amongst many others as fine as this one, for this city to be the stage of the 2010 celebrations of the National Day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese Communities.

I would like to express to the people of Faro, in the person of its Mayor, my recognition for the welcome awarded us, expressing the hospitality so peculiar to an Algarve host, and leave to you all a word of deep gratitude for your endeavour and collaboration in the preparation of the celebration of this 10th June.

On this day we entered “Vila-a-Dentro” and, in a few metres, travelled millenniums of history.

At the Porta do Arco da Vila (Gate of the Arch of the Village), with which the city embellished itself in the beginning of the XIX century, we looked on the Arab Portal, with its horseshoe arch, the ancient entrance for whoever arrived by sea.

We then followed the narrow and sinuous Rua do Município, flanking the ancient Aljube.

When we breathed the salty air we knew that the Ria (inland sea), Formosa (Beautiful) is its name, opened out to the ocean of Algarve’s transparent waters.

In the Largo da Sé (Cathedral Square), where archaeological excavations uncovered an ancient past, on 15 November 1910, when the clock tower sounded two in the afternoon, numerous people of Faro started to form the procession celebrating the young Republic and its recognition by the most powerful countries of the world. They were moved by the same national pride that led us to Faro today. On that far off day, the ardent notes of the National Anthem (“A Portuguesa”) were heard.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
People of Faro,

In Faro, on this festive day, we have the duty to give rise to thought, to promote reflection and to think of the Algarve of which Faro is its capital.

What differentiates labels and identifies the Algarve as a part of Portugal?

What original arrangement of territory and culture grew up in this land?

We can recall, apropos, the words of the poet António Pereira:

“I am from the Algarve
And my street ends in the sea.”

This umbilical relation of the people of the Algarve with the sea that lives at the end of their street is, in some way, their identity.

An identity which was concocted in time with women and men that live in common and want to share a destiny.

How then, to preserve an identity which, sealing the unity of minds, allows new means of regional assertion??

And, simultaneously, how to strengthen an identity of project, changeful and with a future?

The path to be followed is the deepening of a singular relationship between geography and history, between nature and culture.

Regarding the contribution of women and men of culture, António Aleixo, by rights the popular poet, reflected:

“To be an artist is to be somebody!
How wonderful to be an artist...
To see things much further
Than the reach of our sight!”

How often, in my youth, I heard this stanza, and how it made me think what could be seen further than sight.

Reencountering the ancient in Faro is easy. All one needs is to contemplate the stones that were preserved by the ages. To give them life, however, is a lot more difficult.

One has to go further than the reach of sight, visit history to find its simple and deep sense.

I believe I may say that the stones of this city are proof of a way of life which, in its essence, is a meeting between peoples and cultures.

Algarve is the ultimate land for whoever arrives from the North and from the East, as it was for those who departed to uncover the routes of the oceans.

It is a Finisterre embracing the sea, a place where ways of being and of living have always met, existed and became interwoven.

Ossónoba, a Phoenician word, was the name that identified this city in the Roman era. And it was also in that era that a strong Christian community was formed which, later, was respected by the Germanic tribes.

Still more notable, it is significant that in the Arab era this land adopted the name of Santa Maria do Ocidente, that same Occident that gives Algarve its name.

Algarve is thus a word that emerges as a symbol of the centuries old contacts which related Andalusia, North Africa and the Mediterranean with this their natural Atlantic pier.

The numerous foreign communities that find their adoptive home here continue the history of the encounter of cultures of this Algarve of the sea-side, of caves and hills, which was always a port of call and a meeting spot.

The Algarve and the sea have achieved a common destiny.

The path towards an Algarve identity shall always be defined as the search for an encounter and for a shelter in a permanent embrace of the sea.

I congratulate the Faro City Council for its effort in asserting the city as the cosmopolitan capital of this Algarve, a centre of reference and attraction for the millions that visit it every year, an area of culture and knowledge with a vision of the future.

I thank you, Mister Mayor, for your drive and effective collaboration in the organization of this National Day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese Communities.

Thank you.