The Gulbenkian Heritage Prize – Maria Tereza and Vasco Vilalva 2024 will be awarded to the Brotéria Library Project – Cleaning, Sanitising and Restoring Books. Created in 2007 in honour of the Portuguese philanthropist, the Prize has distinguished exemplary interventions in movable and immovable property of cultural value that stimulate the preservation and recovery of heritage.

With a bibliographic collection of around 160,000 volumes – including titles belonging to the General Fund, the Old Book Fund and periodicals on various scientific themes – Brotéria – Associação Cultural e Científica stood out for its ‘exemplary methodology for inventorying, preserving, restoring and making publicly available’ this valuable collection, gathered over the last century.

As well as promoting the cleaning, stabilisation and specialised restoration of publications of undeniable historical importance, the project carried out by Brotéria also takes into account the importance of cultural mediation. As such, it also includes strategies to encourage scientific research, the taste for reading and the debate of ideas, ensuring the accessibility of this archive and a space for thought full of free activities, courses, lectures, round tables and exhibitions.

Finally, the Jury – made up of António Lamas (President), Gonçalo Byrne, Raquel Henriques da Silva, Rui Vieira Nery and Santiago Macias – considered that this initiative also contributes ‘to the local consolidation of an important centre of cultural dynamism which, in turn, articulates with the surrounding network of similar institutions’, in a synergy that is strengthened between the Palace, the Church and Museum of São Roque, the Chiado Museum, the São Carlos, São Luiz and Trindade theatres, the Faculty of Fine Arts and the National Conservatory.

In view of the quality of the 20 applications submitted for the prize, from all over the country, the jury awarded three honourable mentions to the projects for the restoration of the Palácio de São Roque – Casa Ásia – Coleção Francisco Capelo, in Lisbon; the restoration of the Seminário Maior in Coimbra; and the restoration of the Convento de Santa Clara, in Funchal.

The Gulbenkian Heritage Award ceremony will take place on Thursday 12 September at 5pm at Brotéria, in the presence of the President of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, António Feijó, the members of the jury and representatives of all the winners. At the end of the ceremony, interested media can be accompanied on a guided tour of the Library and the Old Book restoration workshops set up for this purpose in the Brotéria building.