The Ministry of Culture has created a campaign for discounts on access to museums, palaces and national monuments, including archaeological sites, which starts on Monday and includes more than 60 cultural facilities spread across the country.
According to the Deputy Secretary of State and Cultural Heritage, Ângela Ferreira, speaking to Lusa, it is a “summer discount campaign, which starts on Monday and lasts until September 30, which includes all monuments , museums, national palaces and archaeological sites, which are under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture ”.
“We built 17 itineraries, grouped by different themes or by regions and that include more than 60 cultural facilities spread across the country, and the discounts consist of the purchase of a ticket for these itineraries, which lasts seven days. In other words, each of the visitors has seven days to enjoy the equipment that is part of this itinerary ”, explained Ângela Ferreira.
In the case of individual tickets, “the discount will be 25% on the normal value of that package”. On family tickets, the discount is 45% and the family concept includes “ascendants or descendants, totaling up to 10 people”.
“In other words, we can have a family that brings children, grandparents, in a total of up to ten members of the same family,” he said.
With this campaign, the guardianship intends to “encourage and promote the cultural participation of the Portuguese”: “Give them the opportunity to visit or revisit our museums and monuments, at a lower cost, in a year that is expected to be exceptional, in that we are aware of the difficulties that many Portuguese are experiencing from an economic point of view ”.
In addition, in a year “in which the majority of Portuguese people are going to spend their holidays in Portugal, fulfilling an appeal that the Prime Minister has already made”, the Ministry of Culture is “working to have a cultural offer at a lower price in throughout the country and that this is a priority choice for the Portuguese this summer ”.
Ângela Ferreira calls on the Portuguese to visit the cultural facilities under the tutelage of the Government, “with all confidence and peace of mind”, guaranteeing that the last few months have been spent “working hard to ensure all security and all conditions, regarding the pandemic [da covid-19]”.
On the National Day of Archeology, which is being celebrated today, the Assistant Secretary of State and Cultural Heritage highlights the itinerary dedicated to Archeology, which includes, among others, the National Museum of Archeology (in Lisbon), the Monographic Museum of Conímbriga (Condeixa , Coimbra), the Miróbriga Archaeological Station (Santiago do Cacém), the Roman village of Estói (Faro) or the Panóias Sanctuary (Vila Real).
“It is an itinerary that follows the whole country, from Lisbon to the North, through the Algarve and the Alentejo,” he said.
Among the 17 itineraries created, Ângela Ferreira also mentioned, as an example, that of Convents and Monasteries, “with more than ten facilities”, including the monasteries of Jerónimos (Lisbon), Santa Maria de Salzedas (Tarouca) and São Martinho de Tibães (Braga), and the UNESCO Heritage Site, which includes the Batalha Monastery, the Convento de Cristo (Tomar), the Alcobaça Monastery, the Jerónimos Monastery, the Belém Tower (Lisbon), the Mafra National Palace and the Machado de Castro National Museum (Coimbra).
“To buy tickets just go to one of the equipment that is part of [do itinerário] and then the ticket allows you to enter all the other equipment that is part of the itinerary, for seven days ”, he explained.
All information on the 17 itineraries is available online, on the websites of the Ministry of Culture, the Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage and the Regional Directorates for Culture in the North, the Center, the Alentejo and the Algarve.
National museums, palaces and monuments closed on March 14, within the scope of the measures to contain the spread of the covid-19 pandemic.
On May 18, International Museum Day, they were allowed to reopen, within the scope of the Government’s “Deconfiguration Plan”, announced on April 30, but with hygiene and safety rules, such as mandatory use of a mask and social distance, adapted its size.
The time that has ended has, according to the Assistant Secretary of State and Cultural Heritage, caused a “very big drop in revenue”.
“But we are already seeing an increase, not only of national entries but of foreign entries, which corresponds to the numbers that have been made public of the entry into Portugal of French, Spanish and Italian tourists. The decline was very drastic, given the numbers of 2019, the highest to date. Obviously, the fact that these months have been closed also contributes to this, ”said Ângela Ferreira.
The drop in revenue in the months in which those cultural facilities were closed was “in the order of two million euros per month”.
Regarding the time since the reopening, there is still no estimate.
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