MMIAH - Blog

Recovery and valorization of maritime, military and industrial heritage of the Atlantic Area coast.

Best Practices: Câmara Municipal de Ílhavo

Located at the Center of Portugal and double-crossed by channels from Ria de Aveiro lagoon, the Municipality of Ílhavo, with an extension of 75 square kilometres and about 40.000 inhabitants, it is bounded, at north, by the harbour entrance channel – connecting this lagoon to the Atlantic Ocean and extending itself through a wide flat area, between a wide green area of National Forest and an extensive coastline of golden sand beaches – the iconic beaches of Barra and Costa Nova.

The motto of the Municipality of Ílhavo, “The Sea by tradition”, reflects the history of this location throughout the years and the strong bet in the promotion of is cultural and touristic heritage. Different job opportunities emerged over the years, such as fishing, harvesting seaweeds and salt production grew alongside the agricultural side of the coastal settlements, supplanting their importance in a process gradually carried over the generations.

One of the most important activities this city presented was cod fishing. Ílhavo played a decisive role on both, the tradition of its people connected to the sea, in addition to its strategic location on several levels. The importance of their relationship with this sector is that it became for a long time a large national centre for recruitment of fishermen and captains as well as a shelter for many countries involved with cod fishing. Port of Aveiro, in the Ílhavo region was one of the most important ports for the Portuguese cod fishing, having the most fishing capacity at national level.

With time, little by little, cod fishing lost its weigh in the country, alongside different activities related to the sea and the lagoon. However, they still recognise it was a historical identity and a rich heritage that public institutions should preserve and promote due to everything it was back in the day.

Because of the privileged and cultural route of Ílhavo, the sea and the lagoon are the central and differentiating elements the location has to offer, that’s why Ílhavo’s application to the MMIAH Project has it main focus on its maritime heritage aspect. The good practices they want to present are:

    • Maritime Museum of Ílhavo
    • Ship Museum Santo André and Jardim Oudinot
    • Coastal Zone of Costa Nova