UNESCO on Wednesday classified 139 sites commemorating the First World War in France and Belgium, including the Portuguese cemetery of Richebourg, where 1,831 Portuguese soldiers who died in the conflict are buried.
This is a candidacy that France and Belgium launched together in 2017 and the consideration of which has been postponed until 2021. Two years after this date, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has granted the status of These places are World Heritage Sites. Many of them are cemeteries, which evoke the memory of the soldiers who died in the First World War.
The cemetery of Richebourg, in the Pas-de-Calais department, where 1,831 Portuguese soldiers were buried between 1924 and 1938, is part of this group and has brought this region closer to Portugal in recent decades.
“We are the territory of the First World War and that is why there is friendship, international cooperation, appreciation for the memory and many volunteers to make this memory alive. For example, the city of Arras is twinned with Batalha, the mayor of Richebourg went to the house of soldier Millions in Murça and there is good cooperation between the cities. And the idea of developing more knowledge about the Portuguese participation in the war and remembrance tourism is something very important,” said Bruno Cavaco, honorary consul of Portugal in Lille, speaking to the Lusa agency.
This cemetery has been managed for several years by the Associação União Franco-Portuguesa de Richebourg, which annually leads the celebration of the participation of Portuguese soldiers in this conflict, supported by the local authorities. The cemetery was recently the target of work by the Portuguese Ministry of Defense, with the ministry’s then minister, João Gomes Cravinho, saying that the investment in its memory is “an investment in the present and the future”.
In 2018, this cemetery already underwent renovation works because it was part of the centenary of the Battle of La Lys, the largest Portuguese military defeat in the First World War, and was visited by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, but also by French President Emmanuel Macron . In the Battle of La Lys alone, approximately 500 Portuguese died and thousands were captured.
The classification of this group of monuments also includes an Indian cemetery, several English and Canadian cemeteries and also a Chinese cemetery, with 842 graves of Chinese who worked for the British army and died during the fighting.
The UNESCO World Heritage Committee will meet in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia until September 25 and deliberate on nominations for monuments from around the world.
Source: DN
