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

I am extraordinarily pleased to be in Guimarães on the day of the opening of the ambitious programme of activities that it will launch, throughout the whole of this year, as European Capital of Culture.

Guimarães, as we all learnt in our first steps at school, is Portugal’s cradle. This is where our roots arose. This is the site of the nation that, from the “Portucalense” county, would later become an independent country. In whatever way, this was Portugal, before Portugal existed.

But Guimarães is not just this ancient past, this mythical place where the courage and the will to become independent inspired, nine centuries ago, in a handful of knights and the people that joined them, the battle for the emancipation of a new country. Guimarães is nowadays a dynamic city, which preserved its memory exemplarily, where lie the headquarters of companies that were able to renew themselves, even in sectors that already seemed condemned and that, due to their determination, creativity and enterprising spirit, are now competing in the global market.

Guimarães is equally a city turned towards the future. A proof of this lies in the Science and Technology Park installed here, the “Avepark”, where the most advanced research goes hand in hand with entrepreneurial innovation and with the development of projects with international scope. This is where, anyway, are located the headquarters of the European Institute of Excellence of Medicinal Tissue Regeneration, which I had the pleasure to open approximately two years ago.

In every moment of its already lengthy history, this city always knew how to uncover the necessary intelligence and strength to conquer the challenges it faced. It was as such in the dawn of nationality; it was as such 150 years ago, when, in the very beginning of the industrial revolution, it created and consolidated a fabric of modern companies; it is as such, once more, at the start of the 21st century, when placing itself at the front of European knowledge, setting up bridges with the more advanced worldwide research centres.

Guimarães is thus the proof that progress, never incompatible with the material and immaterial values of past ages, finds in this legacy, after all, an important sustaining pillar and an incentive which we cannot do without.

Development was not carried out here at the cost of historical heritage, what is modern does not neglect the ancient, cosmopolitanism does not sacrifice local culture. On the contrary, it was in the shade of its ramparts, churches and palaces that the city grew. And it will certainly be in the pride and respect of this same heritage that the city will assert itself, this year, as European Capital of Culture.

Few cities would have, as Guimarães, the right to strive after such a distinction.

Since its origin, European symbols were drawn here by Count Dom Henrique, a crusader who arrived from Burgundy and lived for some time in the city, bequeathing his son, Dom Afonso Henriques, the ambition to bring autonomy to the territory, a task that he had not been able to accomplish.

Throughout the centuries, Guimarães was faithful to this cult of independence and, at the same time, of opening out to the world that, similarly to other European cities, stamped its mediaeval origins.

A simple proof that the culture of Guimarães incorporates both the local and the global, just as the past and the present, was the recent process of conservation and rehabilitation of the city’s historical centre.

It was not just the preserving of streets, walls and windows. It was, above all, the rehabilitation of a set of housing complexes, of providing these with modern equipment and infrastructure, in order that it could continue as an area where people lived and worked, and that could attract the younger generation to inhabit their city. A social heritage, at least as much or possibly even more than a material heritage was preserved here, an urban fabric inhabited for many generations by families that constitute a community. Contemporary architecture and urbanism must not overlook these references.

It was a task that took more than two decades, testing the persistence and the lucidity of the municipal executives. Dozens of private buildings and public areas were then recovered, with strict respect for the original design and with the use of traditional techniques and materials. But recognition could not have been better: even when the work was being carried out, architectural prizes were forthcoming and, to top it all, UNESCO declared, in 2001, that area as a World Cultural Heritage.

A city with such honours has all it needs to guarantee, in 2012, international projection, its culture, that of the region where it lies, or even that of the nation that it cradled.

All Portugal views itself, at this time, in Guimarães. Throughout the following months, stages, museums, monuments, streets and squares of this city will be an enormous gyrating platform, visited by people from all over the world.

Our hospitality and our traditional capacity for dialogue with other peoples and other cultures are well known, and are values that can never be excessively underlined and preserved.

But Portugal is not just a country inhabited by affable people, with a millenary history and a valuable heritage. It is also the home of a people that dialogues in its own language with other peoples, in several continents. It is also a country where, in the last decades, multiple cases of artists, men and women of science, successful entrepreneurs and managers existed within and without its borders.

We are no more the land of origin of many emigrant communities that, in Europe and in the Americas, are known for their dedication and their work. We are also the place of birth of painters and architects, scientists and authors whose talents are recognized all over the world. More than that, we are a country that is fully integrated in the European area, a country where the most advanced research centres exist in several fields of knowledge, and where the patrimonial heritage is renewed and updated, comprising new forms of artistic expression and dialoguing with other cultures.

This is why this European Capital of Culture, located in Guimarães, may come to achieve important repercussions, not just those concerning artistic events, but also with respect to the Country’s global image.

More than ever, the credibility of countries is an extremely relevant asset in the stage of international relations, and this credibility also includes science and cultural indicators, in which are reflected the greater or lesser capacity of the people to perceive difficulties and respond to challenges.

Portugal can and must assert itself, in Europe and internationally, as a valid interlocutor in multiple fields of knowledge and artistic creativity. First of all, because we have institutions and performers that are able to shoulder that challenge. And secondly, through the singularity that our culture, such as the history that we have shared during centuries with other peoples, can represent in this global world where identities are transformed and updated through successive crossings.

For such an assertion it will be necessary, before anything else, that we become aware of the potential we have available in these fields. We cannot promote what we do not believe or what we are unaware of.

I am certain that the European Capital of Culture, our cradle city, will provide a decisive contribution to identify our capabilities as a people and to establish a strategy for the promotion of an image of Portugal in our time.

It was from Guimarães, almost one thousand years ago, that the nation launched itself, first towards the South and later overseas. Hopefully, from Guimarães, in 2012, its spirit will once again be launched, towards Europe and towards the world.

Thank you very much