With still no news on the start-date for work on the Algarve’s first crematorium, Albufeira council has announced plans for a new cemetery, in the parish of Ferreiras.
“It is the only parish in the borough that doesn’t have a cemetery”, mayor Carlos Silva e Sousa told reporters, completely bypassing any kind of mention about the crematorium that only a few months ago was promised in the borough “by 2017” (click here).
Since then local Portuguese language paper Barlavento has interviewed funeral company director Paulo Moniz Carreira of Servilusa, who said (only a few weeks ago) that talks for a crematorium in Faro – not Albufeira – are now at an “initial stage”, and that no further information can be made available.
Which leaves Albufeira with the task of giving its citizens more space for their final resting places.
This new plot of 21,710 square metresin Ferreiras has been purchased for a cost of only €150,000, and should be ready for use by 2018, reports Correio da Manhã.
Silva e Sousa the paper that the next step is a project that must be drawn up and then put to tender.
The cemetery is an infrastructure that has been “asked for” by locals, he said.
The trouble with cemeteries in Portugal, however, is that they are not generally for ‘resting in eternal peace’. Demands for space are such that many graves have to be ‘re-used’ time and again, with the average period for a coffin to stay in place, particularly in a busy coastal borough, being roughly 10 years.
