Works at the Viseu Cathedral to clean the facade and restore altarpieces

Daily

Cathedral will undergo new interventions worth 800 thousand euros

The Viseu Cathedral is already preparing for the fourth phase of conservation and restoration works. The Cultural Heritage Institute met last Friday (22 March) with the Diocese of Viseu to discuss the priority interventions that will be carried out in the city’s cathedral.

The fourth phase of the project will have an estimated investment of 800 thousand euros and is supported by the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR). According to Fátima Eusébio, coordinator of the Department of Cultural Assets of the Diocese, the works will have to be completed by March 2026.

“However, it is certain that the interventions will not end at this stage, as the necessary work will not all be completed in this financing package”, explained the person in charge.

The interventions will focus on the restoration of the carved structures that are missing from the Cathedral, namely the altarpieces of Nossa Senhora do Rosário and the Sacred Heart of Jesus and that of Nossa Senhora da Piedade, located in the cloister, but not only.

The cleaning of the rear facade of the Cathedral and the staircases and the rehabilitation of the pavement, some of the tile panels and the balusters of the upper cloister, as well as the electrical installation of the Passeio dos Cónegos, among others, will also be included.

Interventions are also planned on the floor of the main chapel and on the windows and doors of the museum of sacred art, as well as the installation of tiles in the Chapter’s meeting room, which were removed in the last work.

The first three phases of interventions that the cathedral has already undergone, costing around two million euros, involved cleaning the main facade, restoring the sacristy, chapels and tiles from the old baptismal chapel and restoring the access staircase. to the tower, among other works.

The plan also involves providing the space with a pioneering reduced mobility platform in Portugal, among other equipment. Fátima Eusébio defends these works, saying that “they are very time-consuming and expensive works, but essential for the preservation and enhancement” of the Cathedral of Viseu.

“It is important that the interventions continue with the objective of having the Cathedral building, an icon of the heritage of the city of Viseu, open to the public, which must maintain the space and its assets in due conservation, thus also attracting each more and more visitors, both for its beauty and for what it symbolically represents”, he highlighted.

The Bishop of Viseu, D. António Luciano, was pleased with the meeting, speaking of “another step taken that will contribute to the improvement of the Cathedral building” and highlighting that “the interventions that will be carried out will benefit the entire community” .