The time-worn status of D. Afonso III, standing within Faro’s historic walled city, in front of the Municipal Museum, is being restored by the a specialist conservation team which will take about a month to finish the delicate work.
This statue, one of the best-known in the city, has been in need of attention for some time.
The restoration work is going ahead with the commercial support of a local scaffolding company, SamiCofra.
The bronze status of D. Afonso III, who also is known as 'Bolonhês' due to his French connections, is more than two meters high standing on a pedestal on a stonework base.
Unlike other well-known figures of the first dynasty which are cast in a military style, Afonso III appears with a sceptre and has a firm, serious countenance.
The idea for the construction of this statue dates back to 1954, when the Salazar government decided to offer each regional capital a statue of a figure associated with local history. Under Salazar, architecture was used to foster a sense of national pride and the past often was puffed up and used to justify Portugal’s colonial empire.
The Salazar regime instructed the Portuguese to honour, "Deus, Pátria e Familia” (God, Fatherland, and Family) and many of the Estado Novo statues remain in place despite their creation being highly political.
The Council decided on D. Afonso III, although other names were presented, as Afonso is forever associated with the final conquest of the Algarve and the victorious campaign in Faro, aided by the Order of Santiago, led by Paio Peres Correia.
The Council commented, "With this restoration, carried out by the conservation team from Faro’s Municipal Museum, already recognised as one of the best teams in the country, we are continuing with our strategy of restoration of the historical heritage of our county.”
Afonso III, ‘o Bolonhês,’ (1210 - 1279) was the first to use the title ‘King of Portugal and the Algarve,’ as from 1249.
He was the second son of King Afonso II of Portugal and his wife, Urraca of Castile. He succeeded his brother, King Sancho II of Portugal, who died on 4 January 1248.
Afonso was born in Coimbra but lived mostly in France, where he married Matilda in 1238, the heiress of Boulogne, thereby becoming Count of Boulogne, Mortain, Aumale and Dammartin-en-Goële, by right of his wife.
In 1246, conflicts between his brother, the king, and the church became unbearable. In 1247, Pope Innocent IV ordered Sancho II to be removed from the throne and to be replaced by the Count of Boulogne.
Afonso did not refuse the papal order and consequently marched to Portugal. Since Sancho was not a popular king the order was not hard to enforce, and he fled in exile to Toledo, Castile, where he died on 4 January 1248.
Until his brother's death and his own eventual coronation, Afonso retained and used the title of Visitador, Curador e Defensor do Reino (Overseer, Curator and Defender of the Kingdom).
In order to ascend the throne Afonso abdicated his rights to the county of Boulogne in 1248. In 1253, he divorced Matilde in order to marry Beatrice of Castile, illegitimate daughter of Alfonso X, King of Castile, and Mayor Guillén de Guzmán.
Determined not to make the same mistakes as his brother, Afonso III paid special attention to what the middle class, composed of merchants and small land owners, had to say.
In 1254, in the city of Leiria, he held the first session of the Cortes, a general assembly comprising the nobility, the middle class and representatives of all municipalities. He also made laws intended to restrain the upper classes from abusing the least favoured part of the population. Remembered as a notable administrator, Afonso III founded several towns, granted the title of city to many others and reorganized public administration.
Afonso showed extraordinary vision for the time. Progressive measures taken during his kingship include: representatives of the commons, besides the nobility and clergy, were involved in governance; the end of preventive arrests such that henceforward all arrests had to be first presented to a judge to determine the detention measure; and fiscal innovation, such as negotiating extraordinary taxes with the mercantile classes and direct taxation of the Church, rather than debasement of the coinage. These may have led to his excommunication by the holy see and possibly precipitated his death, and his son Denis's premature rise to the throne at only 18-years-old.
Secure on the throne, Afonso III then proceeded to make war with the Muslim communities that still thrived in the south. In his reign the Algarve became part of the kingdom, following the capture of Faro.
Following his success against the Moors, Afonso III had to deal with a political situation concerning the country's borders with Castile.
The neighbouring kingdom considered that the newly acquired lands of the Algarve should be Castilian, not Portuguese, which led to a series of wars between the two kingdoms.
Finally, in 1267, the Treaty of Badajoz (1267) was signed in Badajoz, determining that the southern border between Castile and Portugal should be the River Guadiana, as it is today. Afonso died in Alcobaça, Coimbra or Lisbon, aged 68.
(History lesson, with thanks to Wikipedia)
