Vila do Bispo council has won the regional prize for Municipality of the Year Award 2017, due its Sagres U-boat project.
The municipality sent in its project, hoping to get some sort of recognition but mayor Adelino Soares was delighted to receive first prize from the panel at the University of Minho.
The ‘U-35 operations in Sagres (1917-2017)’ was launched in April in Sagres when the centenary of the action off the coast involving the German Navy’s U-35 submarine (pictured) in a project which, “studied the actions of Submarine U-35 off Sagres and Lagos on April 24, 1917.”
In April the wrecks of ships sunk in the naval action became part of UNESCO’s Underwater Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The ceremony included the council and the Portuguese Navy and a book "The Actions of the U-35 in the Algarve" was launched.
In a case of "do please mention the War," a plaque was unveiled at the Santo António do Beliche Fort, followed by a trip to the sites of two of the shipwrecks and a dive to the resting place of the Norwegian freighter, Torvore. (here)
This event was the culmination of detailed planning and plenty of work by the Vila do Bispo council and by personnel at the Naval school using of state-of-the-art technology from the Portuguese Navy. Also involved were the University of Alicante, the school community of Vila do Bispo and Lagos, the diplomatic representatives of Germany and France as well as the hotel industry, restaurant owners and local maritime tourism companies.
Keeping these various stakeholders engaged and involved was no mean task and one that now has been recognised.
The council now expects that the U-35 project will serve as "a bridge for the creation of an underwater itinerary to visit the various wrecks; for further investigation in the events of the subsequent WWII and also for a reassessment of the wreck of the French battleship L'Océan, (here) launched and sunk in 1759 between the beaches of Boca do Rio and Salema."
This award programme, organised by the University of Minho, through its UM-Cidades scheme, aims to recognise and reward good practice in council projects that have “significant impacts in the territory, in the economy and in society, that promote the growth, inclusion and sustainability of the municipalities, as well as to give visibility and to recognise, in different categories, diverse realities that include the cities and the low-density territories in the different council regions.”
