The iconic Portuguese pavement, or “calçada” or cobblestones is officially a candidate for UNESCO’s intangible Cultural list, the Portuguese Pavement Association along with several municipalities, has submitted the application to UNESCO for the recognition of the “Art and Know - How of Portuguese Pavement”.
On 14th March 2025, the candidacy file linked to the Inventory of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity was delivered to the National Commission of UNESCO, a move which seeks to enhance and recognize the importance of this artisanal tradition so famed and appreciated by many and visible all around the Portuguese territory.
In addition this candidacy also serves as a call to public entities, national and local, to commit to the preservation and promotion of this art elevated as a brand that must be assumed as a strategic asset for the affirmation of Portugal.
After three years of work following a process of candidacy, the Portuguese Paving Association, with more than examples of 50 paving stones, the collaboration of 8 municipalites such as Braga, Estremo, Faro, Funchal, Lisbon, Ponta Delgada, Porto de Mós and Setúbal, and the support of more than 20 national public and private institutions, concluded the application process to UNESCO, with the aim of preserving and promoting this art, at risk of extinction.
Over time, Portuguese pavement in centuries of constant development all around the country has established itself not only as one of the main cultural, identity and and aesthetic references of the national territory, continental and insular, but also as a fundamental element of the urban landscape, contributing to identity of the Portuguese cultural, history and space becoming in all its essence a sort of icon.
“A calçada portuguesa”, the Portuguese pavement is the well - known name for a certain type of floor covering used especially for paving sidewalks, public spaces, and private spaces, widely used in urban areas to embellish the environment as an artistic accent of a culture but also to show and highlight the value of an activity started centuries ago.
Portuguese pavement or cobblestones is the result of paving with irregular or regulr shaped, stones, depending on the technique, generally made of white and black limestone or basalt which can be used to form decorative patterns or also to create mosaics through the contrast between the stones of different colours.
The Portuguese Pavement Association, created in 2017 at the request of the Lisbon City Council, has the mission of protecting, enhancing and promoting, nationally and internationally the Portuguese Pavement as a cultural and identity heritage of Portugal.
Its members are the Lisbon City Council, the Porto de Mós Council, ASSIMAGRA, the Portuguese Association of the Mineral Resources Industry, the University of Lisbon, UCCLA, the Union of Portuguese - speaking Capital Cities and the Portuguese Group of the International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property.
The Association undertook the preparation of the candidacy of the Art and Know - How of Portuguese Pavement to the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, with the aim of valuing the knowledge, know – how and mastery of the paves and other plastic artists who have carried out this technique overs the years.
Today the traditional Portuguese cobblestones spread to various part of the world as a Portuguese cultural brand, with a special presence in Brazil and other countries with which Portugal maintains cultural exchanges, confirming its universal relevance.
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Thanks a lot to read and note.