Portimão Council has approved a plan to turn Alvor’s old lifeboat station into a museum.
The €312,800 project – 70% of which will be covered by community funding – aims to transform the historic building into an interpretive centre “highlighting Alvor’s history and its existing natural and maritime heritage.”
Hopes are that the museum can help attract even more people to the small fishing village, already popular due to its picturesque beauty, restaurants, bars and bustling summer nightlife.
Says Portimão Council, the project also aims to combat “seasonality” – the word so often used in the Algarve to describe how the region attracts most of its holidaymakers in the summer.
The works will involve renovating the building’s façade and installing a series of interactive and audiovisual exhibits inside the former lifeboat station, focusing on the town’s history as a fishing village and the biodiversity of its estuary.
Another highlight will be the village’s beloved lifeboat ‘Alvor’, restored to its former glory in 2017.
The rowboat is believed to have been built between 1932 and 1933 and was used in maritime rescue missions until 1983 in and around Alvor. It remains a relic of its time and is expected to be a focal point of the future museum.
The local council also plans to use the museum as an educational centre for “schools, local associations and professional maritime groups” by bringing them into direct contact with the local fishing community.
The next step now will be to launch a public tender for the works.
