Welcome to the Official page of the Presidency of the Portuguese Republic

Mayor of Bragança,
President of King Afonso Henriques Foundation,
Professor Doctor Adriano Moreira,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am always very pleased to return to Bragança.

Bragança, a city which has held a leading role in the development process of the Northeast, promoting a change which improves everyone’s living conditions, without disrupting the natural environment and the historical and cultural traits of the region.

Bragança, a city older than five centuries, a border location which, since D. Afonso Henriques, has always insisted in being Portuguese.

I salute the King Afonso Henriques Foundation. A private institution with a public participation which, by deepening the relations neighbouring the limits of the border set by the Founder, contributes towards the economic, social and cultural development of the Douro Valley.

This is what Bragança and this region require most: innovative ways of valuing its heritage and streamlining its capabilities, consistent with a growing focus on the Iberian context and a greater proximity to the centre of Europe.

Bragança is the city of the Domus Municipalis, symbol of Portuguese municipal principles. The home of the citizens of Bragança, where the haughty and free spirit of the North easterners has always been evident.

We pay tribute today to one of those North easterners, a notable Portuguese.

Professor Adriano Moreira, a Portuguese from Trás-os-Montes who reencounters his origins in Grijó de Vale-Benfeito, and, using his own words “the small Fatherland which is each one’s village”.

The “small Fatherland” which is austere Trás-os-Montes, which breeds men with a harsh bearing and a sensitive soul.

Born here, throughout the centuries, were Portuguese who interpreted, as few did, the sense of duty and honour. The sense of duty and honour which brings forward forthrightness and integrity.

At the university, where he was Master of lucidity, Professor Adriano Moreira construed education focused on “convergence of knowledge”. The sole convergence which will allow the understanding of an inexorably and increasingly complex society.

Announcer of an age of convergence and of congregation of civilizations, Professor Adriano Moreira was never one who wished to please everybody.
In public life, he belonged to the breed of those who remained faithful to their word and to their trajectory.

He witnessed the changes in the times and the changes in the wills of the people. He was akin to the North eastern granite massifs which calmly observe the transient moods of life and men.

He was not one of the silent, however. He was capable of saying what had to be said.

He stated the essential, not any more or any less than the essential.

By saying, he brought comprehension. He is one of these men of thought and reflections who are capable of teaching us to better understand the world in which we live.

He sorted out ideas into words and words into action. As a man who took action, he knows the value of time. Above all, he knows that time must not be wasted.

In his learned words: “it is absolutely inadmissible that anybody, especially when responsible for public office, loses other people’s time, because others’ time is the future of us all.”

He has always known that institutions last longer than men. For this reason, to serve men’s aims, he defended that it was imperative to strengthen the institutions.

These words, also, are his:

“When a man is able to give a word of advice, give rise to an idea, remedy a wrong, innovate in silence, he must give quiet thanks for the fortune of having lived, to the full, the spirit of his people.”

We Portuguese have the duty to publicly thank, with words and acts of recognition, such as that which we are attending today, Professor Adriano Moreira.

Show our thanks to who has always nourished the hope of making the values of History conform to the demands of the future.

Show our thanks to who has, above all, taken the trouble to show how we may continue being Portuguese.

Show our thanks to who has made us feel that the heritage we have bequeathed to the world, more than just stone buildings, can be a veritable moral strength.

Show our thanks, lastly, for this proof of devotion to the land of his forebears, the donation of a library, a contribution for the preparation of tomorrow’s North easterners. Whoever loves books knows well what it costs to become separated from them. Only a deep affection for his land and its people can support such a generous decision.