Tomar Renovates Synagogue to Attract Tourism

Sunday, 28 August 2011 00:00

The city of Tomar will renovate its city's synagogue, the only fifteenth-century Sephardic temple that exists in the Iberian Peninsula, in order to enhance its “value as a touristic and cultural landmark in the county.” The city, in agreement with regional press, has already received over 25,000 euros from Lisbon Regional Tourism and Tejo Valley in order to finish the first of six phases. “This is for the acquisition of time-appropriate furniture in order to give unguided temple visitors a historic background,” said Rosário Simões, Deputy Mayor of Tomar, explaining that the furniture will help visitors to independently interpret and understand the monument. The town intends to rehabilitate the already-built space, and described an activity plan for the monument, presented by the city executive during the town meeting held on Thursday July14^th, 2011. “We're having meetings with the Regional Directorate of Culture in order to direct physical intervention, at the level of the building, while allowing the city to intervene in the building's rehabilitation and activation.” Besides the interpretive center and physical intervention, the project is also planning the publication of promotional material and books, a tourism program and an explorative learning project, all ways to implement the phases that represent an investment of 54,500 euros.