DRAFT RESOLUTION NO. 495 /X

It recommends to the Government the completion of the Classification of the Horse of the

Pit of S. Vicente and of the entire Couto Mineiro de S. Pedro da Cova, the

development of a musealisation project of mining activity

and the resolution of the environmental liability of mines

Exhibition of Motives

The Horse of S. Vicente of the Mines of S. Pedro da Cova is one of the elements

edited of greater relevance in the historical memory of mining activity

who for about 170 years developed in that freguesia of the county

of Gondomar and in the region of Porto, and has represented, since the séc. Nineteenth to the

its closure in 1972, a key role in the regional economy and

national.

It is a vertical structure, in concrete, with about 25 metres of

height and 13 floors, the function of which was to support the extraction of coal from the wells of the

mines that served, for 17 decades, to the production of the energy required by the

domestic and industrial consumption and, later, allowed to make the network circular

of electric from Porto.

It is an imposing and remarkable monument, unique exemplary in architecture

industrial, having even been chosen by the Department of Mines

of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto for its logo.

The immovable is part of the miner complex of the freguesia of S. Pedro da Cova,

in Gondomar, together with the well where it is in trouble, the "neighborhood", the

canteen, the school, the seaside resort and other services created for the labourers who

there they worked, which came to be more than a thousand.

The Horse of S. Vicente, as well as the facilities of the former miner couture

are found to be long voted for abandonment, in an advanced state of

degradation and, by virtue of being the property of private individuals, are today

at risk of losing definitively.

Such a situation, would represent a serious loss to the historical memory of the

freguesia, from the county and the region, which matters to preserve and transmit to the

new generations and to the looms. It is the forgotten story of the ruins of the mines,

that have marked generations and entire families who there have worked, as well as the

history of the industrialization of the region that urge to preserve and maintain.

The classification of the immovable, requested by the City Hall of Gondomar

in 1990, having been the subject of dispatch favourable to the opening of the proceedings

1996, continues to this day by concluding, putting at risk the preservation of this

valuable monument flagged as the object of public interest by the

IPPAR (current IGESPAR).

The delay in the completion of the classification process and the growing state of

degradation of the whole complex, after in 1979 and, later, in 1996

through an application approved to the URBAN programme, if they have created

spective in the rehabilitation and development of a project more

consistent musealization of mining activity, makes fear for the

preservation of this heritage.

The preservation of this unique structure in its genre, recognized to its

historical importance, it may even come to constitute a lever to

urban redefinition of the freguesia and the county in which it inserts itself, as

happens with other exemplars of industrial architecture, increasingly

valued all over, and whose classification and rehabilitation has enabled

including the caption of new tourist interests.

The classification of the Horse of S. Vicente represents an important step

which must be accompanied by the indispensable rethinking of the whole complex

engaging, with a view to the musealisation of mining activity. Project that

finds in the current mining museum, with all its limitations, an embryo

that it is necessary to develop and qualify, looking for modern solutions and

innovators in such a way as to preserve the artefacts, documents and testimonies of

memories there concentrates and the many that remain scattered and by

register and which urge to collect in such a way as to ensure its preservation by giving

life to the forgotten history of the mines and the gents that worked there.

It is yet to be stressed that the issues linked to heritage add up

here concerns of environmental cariz with repercussions on public health

that it is necessary to resolve.

Once the extractive activity is abandoned, also in S. Pedroda Cova

remains the ambental liability associated with the degraded mining areas.

A problem that affects ecosystems, contaminates waters and soils and represents

serious risks to the public health of the resident populations in this area and even

of the Port region, to demand the intervention of the State in its resolution.

The populations that have suffered for generations with the mining not

may further remain subject to exposure to such environmental conditions

aggressive.

Thus, in the regimental and constitutional terms, the Assembly of

Republic, brought together in plenary, resolves to recommend to the Government:

1-A quick promotion of the completion of the classification process of the

Cavalete of the Poço of S. Vicente and of all the elements of the miner couture of

S. Pedro da Cova and the urgent rehabilitation of this structure.

2-The establishment of a partnership model and the elaboration of a

project with a view to the musealization of mining activity in S. Pedro da

Cova, constructing a living museum that alie the cultural, scientific and the

of touristic attraction, capable of making this structure an anchor of

economic and social development for the community.

3-A quick resolution of the environmental liability of the mines of S. Pedro da Cova

integrating this process into PRAAME, without discuring the use of others

pathways for the regeneration of waste in deposit.

Assembly of the Republic, May 20, 2009.

The Deputies