Heritage at Risk in Portugal

The notion of heritage at risk refers to the set of monuments, sites and landscapes whose cultural value is threatened to the point of potentially being lost irreversibly. In Portugal, this risk takes various forms: slow abandonment leading to ruin, structural degradation due to lack of maintenance, pressure from real estate speculation on historic centres, unqualified interventions and, increasingly, the effects of natural disasters such as fires, floods and earthquakes. Recognising and signalling this risk is now a central part of heritage institutions’ work.

Historical roots of abandonment

Much of the built heritage at risk stems from specific historical ruptures. The most significant was the dissolution of religious orders in 1834, which left hundreds of convents, monasteries and monastic enclosures without communities to inhabit and maintain them. Some were converted into hospitals, barracks, schools or museums; many others, however, entered a cycle of deconsecration and abandonment that led to their ruin over the 19th and 20th centuries.

To this wave were later added the depopulation of the interior, the disuse of industrial and railway infrastructure, and the emptying of manor houses and estates. The result is a vast, scattered collection of buildings with no clear function – precisely the condition most conducive to degradation. Reflection on these processes is inseparable from the history of heritage institutions, which were created largely in response to them.

How risk is signalled

There is no single, official closed list of heritage at risk in Portugal. Signalling rather results from the coordination of various actors. ICOMOS-Portugal runs a Heritage at Risk programme and contributes to the global Heritage@Risk reports, which document cases of endangered monuments and sites. The Directorate-General for Cultural Heritage monitors the state of conservation of classified assets and has legal instruments to impose works or halt harmful interventions.

The European scale has gained weight through the 7 Most Endangered programme, promoted by Europa Nostra with the European Investment Bank Institute. Several Portuguese cases have been highlighted: the Convent of Jesus in Setúbal, a masterpiece of early Manueline style, was on the first list in 2013 and later became an example of successful recovery; the carillon of the National Palace of Mafra was noted in 2014; and the Vale de Milhaços Gunpowder Factory complex in Seixal, one of the most complete testimonies of European industrial heritage, featured on the 2026 list.

Risk is rarely sudden: in most cases, what destroys a monument is not catastrophe, but years of inaction. Early signalling is therefore as valuable as intervention.

From signalling to safeguarding

Signalling is only the first step. Effective safeguarding depends on longer chains, combining the classification of an asset – which activates legal protection regimes – with funding, technical planning and, above all, the definition of a new sustainable use. Experience shows that monuments that recover durably are generally those given a new function: museum, cultural facility, accommodation, community space.

This is also why the debate on heritage at risk cannot be separated from conservation and restoration. Late and poor intervention can be as destructive as no intervention: excessive restorations, incompatible materials or fanciful reconstructions compromise the authenticity they were meant to protect. The case of Setúbal, which went from Europe’s most threatened monument to a rehabilitation benchmark, illustrates that risk is not a sentence – provided signalling is followed by a technically rigorous and socially appropriate response.