Pedras Salgadas Chapel

Pedras Salgadas Chapel

Pedras Salgadas Park suffered the natural desertion that affected most thermal parks. Following World War II, advances in medicine and tourists’ growing appetite for the beach, park visitor numbers fell and the now empty buildings slowly disintegrated with no prospect of a solution in sight. The intervention was geared to restoring the identity underlying Pedras Salgadas Park, one that sets it apart from other parks: its markedly romantic design, typical of the peak of thermal tourism.

The chapel had been badly affected by successive works it underwent over the years. It was rebuilt, the altars were cleaned and the ceilings vaulted. It is a supplementary feature for socialisation, presenting the opportunity for a number of religious ceremonies. The “Garages” at the entrance to the park served, as the name indicated, to keep cars. The preservation of the original spelling on the façades immediately refers us to another era. This is precisely the proposal undertaken with the recuperation of the park: a voyage in time to a period of history that was profoundly marked by a style of life which we can only hope to access through media: films, photographs or books. This was a time when spa parks – and the generous nature surrounding them – were the last resort in terms of health and salubrity for the men and women of a society that was increasingly modern but lacking in means of diagnosis and therapy.

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year

2012 - 2015

Localization

Vila Pouca de Aguiar, Portugal

area

102 sqm

Client

Unicer Bebidas de Portugal - VMPS, Águas e Turismo

Architecture

Luís Rebelo de Andrade, Madalena Rebelo de Andrade, Raquel Jorge, Pedro Baptista Dias

Fotography

FG + SG - Fotografia de Arquitectura

Text

Valério Romão