Friend from Barquinha
Veteran Member
- Time of past OR future Camino
- None yet; perhaps the Portugese (2021?)
The municipality of Tomar has just opened a second municipal albergue, following the autumn 2019 opening of one in Asseiceira (see thread https://www.caminodesantiago.me/community/threads/albergue-in-asseiceira.64419/).
This one is in Calvinos, a village about 5 km north of Tomar itself, and like the other one, remodeled from a no-longer-used elementary school
Here is a slightly edited story, translated courtesy of Google, describing how it's happened. The Portuguese link follows and includes photos.
"Tomar has won a new hostel for pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, which is the result of the conversion of the old primary school in the village of Calvinos. The Municipality of Tomar and the União de Freguesias de Casais e Alviobeira signed the lease agreement for Albergue de Calvinos, with the management being ensured by the parish council. Tomar thus contains two hostels that are municipal property, in addition to other responses in private tourist developments.
The works to improve the space were carried out by the Municipality of Tomar with the objective of "providing conditions for the welcoming of pilgrims who travel the Camino de Santiago, the first European Cultural Itinerary created by the Council of Europe".
On the occasion, Filipa Fernandes, councilor of the Municipality of Tomar, and João Luís Alves, president of the União de Freguesias de Casais and Alviobeira, expressed their satisfaction and highlighted the importance of this new space, “not only for the support it will give to pilgrims, but also for the satisfaction of the local residents in seeing this space rehabilitated ”.
In an interview with mediotejo.net, Filipa Fernandes spoke about the municipal strategy on the section of the Way that crosses the municipality of Tomar, which essentially aims to ensure conditions for the walkers to travel safely and with information when disposing the original and historically proven route.
On the other hand, the municipality was able to give new life and use to old primary schools, which, being municipal property, end up being assigned to associations or converted into other types of equipment, such as pilgrims' hostels.
“One of the priorities of the Municipality of Tomar is to give life back to the already vacant school spaces, something that makes no sense at all. We have attributed its usufruct to associations or parish councils to return the space to the community and to give new life to what was an unused space ”, he begins by mentioning.
On the issue of hostels, he stresses that it is "something particular" because "there was no answer for this type of accommodation on the Camino de Santiago in Tomar and we created a protocol with two parish councils, which are completely different questions".
In the case of Calvinos, this is a project that the municipality already had under development in order to convert the old primary school, in that village of União de Freguesias de Casais and Alviobeira. "A hostel thus emerges so that there is an answer at two different points on the Santiago road in Tomar", explains the councilwoman.
“At the entrance to the Tomar road, there is the Asseiceira hostel, where you can stay overnight and then stay in the municipality and enjoy all the heritage that Tomar has to offer. And then you can stay at the Calvinos hostel, which is already off the Tomar road, and then continue the route ”, he concludes.
The Calvinos hostel, whose protocol with UF Casais and Alviobeira was signed on April 29, will be managed by the parish council, which may delegate to an association, for example, the delivery of keys to the walkers, the management of cleaning and maintenance of the building. space.
For its part, the Asseiceira parish council has a lending protocol signed with the City of Tomar, and it was the council itself that took the initiative to create a pilgrim hostel in the old primary school, the current Albergue D. Dinis, inaugurated at the end of October 2019.
On balance of the initiative, Filipa Fernandes says that this hostel in Asseiceira is a space widely used by the walkers who make the Camino de Santiago, even though with the pandemic the affluence has decreased because these places had to close doors and these activities were conditioned .
In order to standardize the process in both spaces, the City Council created rules for the functioning of the hostels, “so that the purpose is not distorted: the idea, in the first place, is to give the possibility of a walker who come to Tomar to stay at that location, and at the same time, that this objective is not distorted by any other type of compromise or use other than the purpose for which it was created ”.
“We created a protocol and rules, and they were given to both parish councils so that they can proceed with the dynamization of the hostels in our municipality”, says Filipa Fernandes.
The mayor argues that the Camino de Santiago "is a path that needs to be preserved, it needs to be safeguarded, and there is a long way for municipalities to take steps towards certification".
“The Municipality of Tomar is a member of the direction of the Federation of Caminhos de Santiago, which intends to safeguard the historic and safe paths, so that more conditions are gradually created for the walkers. For example, ensuring that signage is well established on the way in each municipality; at the level of useful information for the walker, in the case of the walker who needs some medical care, some being
service by firefighters or similar; to give conditions to hikers in terms of overnight stays, which previously did not exist, and in that sense to attract more visitors and fix the visitor more time in the territory ”, he enumerates.
The objective in Tomar is also to conquer the hiker, so that “instead of spending the night in another territory, you can spend the night in the municipality, enjoying meals or other commerce”, getting involved in the local dynamics and contributing to the economy of Tomar.
In the Centro region, an area of which Tomar is part, it is expected that either Turismo do Centro or the Federation, “both with the competence to apply for certification” according to the councilwoman, will define who is going forward with the process.
The section of the Portuguese Central Way that crosses the municipality of Tomar passes through Crane, Asseiceira, Tomar, the Ponte de Peniche, Casais, Soianda, Calvinos and Ponte de Ceras, being considered a linear route on mixed ground.
The route through Tomar municipality has a length of about 27 km, with an average duration estimated at 10 hours to cover it." [The story concludes with some political reporting--hard to understand outside Portugal--about the competition between the different regions to get tourism funding for the caminhos. It seems that the Alentejo/Ribotejo area--where JungleBoy is currently walking--has been first off the mark, but the other regions including this one, "Central", are hard at work as well!
www.mediotejo.net
This one is in Calvinos, a village about 5 km north of Tomar itself, and like the other one, remodeled from a no-longer-used elementary school
Here is a slightly edited story, translated courtesy of Google, describing how it's happened. The Portuguese link follows and includes photos.
"Tomar has won a new hostel for pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, which is the result of the conversion of the old primary school in the village of Calvinos. The Municipality of Tomar and the União de Freguesias de Casais e Alviobeira signed the lease agreement for Albergue de Calvinos, with the management being ensured by the parish council. Tomar thus contains two hostels that are municipal property, in addition to other responses in private tourist developments.
The works to improve the space were carried out by the Municipality of Tomar with the objective of "providing conditions for the welcoming of pilgrims who travel the Camino de Santiago, the first European Cultural Itinerary created by the Council of Europe".
On the occasion, Filipa Fernandes, councilor of the Municipality of Tomar, and João Luís Alves, president of the União de Freguesias de Casais and Alviobeira, expressed their satisfaction and highlighted the importance of this new space, “not only for the support it will give to pilgrims, but also for the satisfaction of the local residents in seeing this space rehabilitated ”.
In an interview with mediotejo.net, Filipa Fernandes spoke about the municipal strategy on the section of the Way that crosses the municipality of Tomar, which essentially aims to ensure conditions for the walkers to travel safely and with information when disposing the original and historically proven route.
On the other hand, the municipality was able to give new life and use to old primary schools, which, being municipal property, end up being assigned to associations or converted into other types of equipment, such as pilgrims' hostels.
“One of the priorities of the Municipality of Tomar is to give life back to the already vacant school spaces, something that makes no sense at all. We have attributed its usufruct to associations or parish councils to return the space to the community and to give new life to what was an unused space ”, he begins by mentioning.
On the issue of hostels, he stresses that it is "something particular" because "there was no answer for this type of accommodation on the Camino de Santiago in Tomar and we created a protocol with two parish councils, which are completely different questions".
In the case of Calvinos, this is a project that the municipality already had under development in order to convert the old primary school, in that village of União de Freguesias de Casais and Alviobeira. "A hostel thus emerges so that there is an answer at two different points on the Santiago road in Tomar", explains the councilwoman.
“At the entrance to the Tomar road, there is the Asseiceira hostel, where you can stay overnight and then stay in the municipality and enjoy all the heritage that Tomar has to offer. And then you can stay at the Calvinos hostel, which is already off the Tomar road, and then continue the route ”, he concludes.
The Calvinos hostel, whose protocol with UF Casais and Alviobeira was signed on April 29, will be managed by the parish council, which may delegate to an association, for example, the delivery of keys to the walkers, the management of cleaning and maintenance of the building. space.
For its part, the Asseiceira parish council has a lending protocol signed with the City of Tomar, and it was the council itself that took the initiative to create a pilgrim hostel in the old primary school, the current Albergue D. Dinis, inaugurated at the end of October 2019.
On balance of the initiative, Filipa Fernandes says that this hostel in Asseiceira is a space widely used by the walkers who make the Camino de Santiago, even though with the pandemic the affluence has decreased because these places had to close doors and these activities were conditioned .
In order to standardize the process in both spaces, the City Council created rules for the functioning of the hostels, “so that the purpose is not distorted: the idea, in the first place, is to give the possibility of a walker who come to Tomar to stay at that location, and at the same time, that this objective is not distorted by any other type of compromise or use other than the purpose for which it was created ”.
“We created a protocol and rules, and they were given to both parish councils so that they can proceed with the dynamization of the hostels in our municipality”, says Filipa Fernandes.
The mayor argues that the Camino de Santiago "is a path that needs to be preserved, it needs to be safeguarded, and there is a long way for municipalities to take steps towards certification".
“The Municipality of Tomar is a member of the direction of the Federation of Caminhos de Santiago, which intends to safeguard the historic and safe paths, so that more conditions are gradually created for the walkers. For example, ensuring that signage is well established on the way in each municipality; at the level of useful information for the walker, in the case of the walker who needs some medical care, some being
service by firefighters or similar; to give conditions to hikers in terms of overnight stays, which previously did not exist, and in that sense to attract more visitors and fix the visitor more time in the territory ”, he enumerates.
The objective in Tomar is also to conquer the hiker, so that “instead of spending the night in another territory, you can spend the night in the municipality, enjoying meals or other commerce”, getting involved in the local dynamics and contributing to the economy of Tomar.
In the Centro region, an area of which Tomar is part, it is expected that either Turismo do Centro or the Federation, “both with the competence to apply for certification” according to the councilwoman, will define who is going forward with the process.
The section of the Portuguese Central Way that crosses the municipality of Tomar passes through Crane, Asseiceira, Tomar, the Ponte de Peniche, Casais, Soianda, Calvinos and Ponte de Ceras, being considered a linear route on mixed ground.
The route through Tomar municipality has a length of about 27 km, with an average duration estimated at 10 hours to cover it." [The story concludes with some political reporting--hard to understand outside Portugal--about the competition between the different regions to get tourism funding for the caminhos. It seems that the Alentejo/Ribotejo area--where JungleBoy is currently walking--has been first off the mark, but the other regions including this one, "Central", are hard at work as well!
Tomar | Novo albergue em Calvinos reforça apoio a peregrinos do Caminho de Santiago | Médio Tejo
Tomar ganhou um novo albergue de acolhimento a peregrinos do Caminho de Santiago de Compostela, que resulta da reconversão da antiga escola primária da aldeia de Calvinos. A Câmara Municipal de Tomar e a União de Freguesias de Casais e Alviobeira assinaram o protocolo de cedência do Albergue de...
www.mediotejo.net
Especially since it's *after* Tomar, rather than just before. This tends to be the way Portuguese new-initiative-funding in the smaller places works.
