The government has failed for years to fund the preservation of arguably the Algarve’s finest castle. The council has been struggling with funding issues for years and has managed only essential maintenance but now the European taxpayer is to pay €1.5 million to fix up Silves Castle’s outer walls before more sections fall into the streets below.
Certain pars of the wall are classified as in ‘poor’ condition and others are positively dangerous and at risk of collapse with fallen rubble already a common site in some of the surrounding streets.
The project “to halt the degradation and risk of collapse of several sections of the walls,” will get €1.5 million of EU funds, according to the Ministry of Culture which says the investment in cultural infrastructure and heritage was accepted by the European Commission as a Priority 2 intervention.
Silves council wanted the work to be in the Priority 1 programme, but the ministry missed the August 2016 application deadline, claiming its plans were not ready.
The Ministry of Culture seems ony to have been prodded into action by local Communist MP, Paulo Sá, who warned that the walls, which are classified as a national monument, "showed serious signs of degradation,” and need fixing.
One of the worst areas is along the western sector where one section of the wall collapsed. A Civil Protection team had to tape off the street below to keep the passing public from danger.
