The future Jewish Museum of Lisbon, in Belém, should be completed by the end of 2027, the Lisbon City Council’s Councillor for Urbanism, Joana Almeida, said today at a public session to present the project.

“At the moment, the architectural project is being approved, followed by the entire project for the requalification of the surroundings and then the execution project phase and then two years of work. So the whole execution project will take one year and the work two years. We would have a museum completed by the end of 2027,” he told Lusa at the end of the event.

The public presentation of the project, in Belém, follows the start of the 30-day public consultation, which has been running since May 2nd.

The public debate on the construction project was unanimously approved by the municipality on February 22, on the grounds that it was an exception to the view system provided for in the Municipal Master Plan (PDM) regulations.

The Lisbon Jewish Museum is planned for land located between Avenida da Índia, Rua das Hortas and Rua da Praia de Pedrouço, in the parish of Belém.

According to the official, a swap has yet to be resolved with one of the owners, the Santa Casa de Lisboa, so that the land planned for the building becomes available.

The rest of the land for the Museum belonged to private individuals and the exchange of private property for municipal land was approved by the Municipal Assembly on March 19.

It involved the exchange of a 185 m2 (square meter) private property for a 774.28 m2 piece of municipal land, both on Rua da Praia de Pedrouços, in the parish of Belém, which also provides for the private party to pay the council 559,000 euros for the difference in the area of the property ceded by the municipality.

In December 2020, the municipal executive, under the presidency of the PS, approved the construction of the Jewish Museum in Belém and the consequent revocation of the installation of the equipment in Alfama, a location that had been contested by residents.

More than three years later, it’s up to the executive led by Carlos Moedas (PSD) to go ahead with the project.

According to the proposal by the PSD/CDS-PP leadership, which governs without an absolute majority, the Jewish Museum aims to contribute to the “wide dissemination, in Portugal and around the world, of the importance of the Jewish community and its cultural expressions for the historical formation of the city of Lisbon and Portuguese cultural identity”, as part of one of the measures of the Major Options of the Plan for the City of Lisbon 2021|2025, namely Axis D — Affirm Lisbon as a Global City | City of Culture and Openness.

The building proposed for the Jewish Museum has an implantation area of 2,000 m2 and “a construction area of 6,055.64 m2, developing in the east-west direction, with a continuous front of more than 50 meters, about 80 meters long”, and provides for the requalification of the surrounding area in terms of infrastructures and green spaces.

Source: Moti Shabi, Pulse Portugal