“There is no reason for them to be complicating our lives”: Vila Galé Group reacts to partial embargo on works on wine hotel in Ponte de Lima
The president of the Vila Galé group, Jorge Rebelo de Almeida, has already reacted to the partial embargo of construction work on a wine hotel in Paço de Curutêlo, in Ponte de Lima. “The intervention in the castle was licensed and authorized. The embargo is not justified. No way (…) I don’t see any reason why they are complicating our lives”, said the person responsible for the hotel group, who assured that he had contested the embargo on Friday.
Jorge Rebelo de Almeida also said that the entire hotel project, which includes the castle, “took two years to license, by the Northern Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR-N), by Culture (formerly the General Directorate of Cultural Heritage, currently Cultural Heritage), tourism, by Ponte de Lima council”.
“Complete nonsense. We have a project here that should bring joy to the people of the region and the country. Vila Galé is not a stairwell company. Everything is approved. Everything is fine”, he stressed. Jorge Rebelo de Almeida revealed that a meeting at the CCDR-N is scheduled for Wednesday.
“If you have common sense, this is resolved. This is something that has no justification at all. I don’t understand why they are persecuting us for this,” he said.
At issue, he continued, is an intervention carried out on the castle’s ceiling. Jorge Rebelo de Almeida said he hired “a specialized public company that concluded that the wood had no end to reach.”
“When we have an emergency, when a roof is opened and we see the wooden structure on the verge of falling, we come up with a solution to stop it”, he stated, noting that as a replacement he applied light steel structures, the same material used “in the recovery of other houses on the property and which was licensed by the competent bodies”.
Curutelo Palace
Tourism in Porto and North of Portugal
For Jorge Rebelo de Almeida, the embargo on works on the castle “is the most absurd thing that exists and the work being done should be awarded a medal for being a structuring project for the region”. “This castle is a little castle, but it is important to preserve, but it is important to preserve. We are doing what they destroyed. The facade was plastered with cement and painted with plastic paint. You never put cement in a classified work. It had joist slabs, pre -manufactured, bricks and contemporary tiles.
The listed property was acquired in 2022, by the Vila Galé group, through the company Xvinus – Companhia Enoturística, Lda. “It was completely out of character. This farm, when I bought it, was rubbish, abandoned, everything was broken, full of rubbish everywhere. There was no end to reach it. And today a restored castle will leave here, which is me. I’m going to get it back.”
The businessman says he is “persecuted and very hurt”, but assured that he “will not give up”. “Let’s go to court. I’m not going to remove the light steel. No way. Light steel is a good solution. If I can’t build it, the castle will stay in the state it is in. Everything is abandoned in this country and when a camel appears that It’s me, the one who comes to spend money and recover this thing that bothers us. [castelo] barbarities. They did what they wanted. They had no respect for heritage and Culture never worried”, he questioned.
Vila Galé Paço do Curutelo
Partial embargo announced
It should be remembered that last Thursday, October 10th, the mayor of Ponte de Lima explained that the embargo was enacted because “the project provided for a residual intervention within the palace and major changes were made”.
According to the mayor, the inspection made it possible to detect “an intervention within the palace that was not properly licensed”, pointing out “the replacement of flooring, roofing and structural reinforcement through the application of an interior belt which, according to the technicians, appears to be in reinforced concrete”.
In a clarification sent to the Lusa agency, the CCDR Norte Culture Unit considered “there was non-compliance with the project approved by the Cultural Heritage authority (then, General Directorate of Cultural Heritage), in 2023, in particular, non-compliance with the intervention in the classified property ( on the roof and floors, for example)”.
