Clérigos Tower has already received eight million visitors
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This Wednesday, the Mayor of Porto symbolically received the title of visitor number eight million to Complexo dos Clérigos - Tower, Church and Museum. For the Clérigos Brotherhood, this is a year of great importance and significance, as it marks the 10th anniversary of the award-winning restoration work and reopening of the tower to the public.
Rui Moreira, accompanied by the President of the Clérigos Brotherhood, Father Manuel Fernandes, visited the Clérigos Tower and Museum, unveiling a commemorative plaque next to the 'Parede dos Milhões' (Wall of Millions). 'Being visitor number eight million is very symbolic. It makes me a witness to the wide national and international acknowledgement of the Clérigos Tower', the Mayor of Porto admitted.
'Just so you know, the Clérigos Tower used to receive a mere hundred thousand visitors a year before the requalification. After 2014, the average annual number of visitors went up to 1.3 million', Rui Moreira said, recalling that over its more than 250 years of history, it has performed various functions in addition to its religious ones: 'it was a bell tower, a commercial telegraph, a naval marker, a military observation and command post, among other uses'. In other words, 'it has always been at the service of the city's different trades and activities, as it is now at the service of tourism'.
The Clérigos Tower stands as a symbol of the past, but also as an image of a dynamic and cosmopolitan Porto of the future’
For Rui Moreira, 'the attractiveness of such an emblematic monument for the city also serves to enhance collective self-esteem, a sense of belonging and identity that unite us as a destination community'.
'While it's true that the Clérigos Tower has benefited from the vitality of tourism in Porto and the city's cultural dynamics, the reverse is also true. Porto's tourism sector, rich heritage, cultural life and museum offer have gained a new élan with the renovation of the Clérigos Tower', he emphasised.
And he concluded: Ten years on from the requalification work, the Clérigos Tower stands as a symbol of the past, but also as an image of a dynamic and cosmopolitan Porto of the future'.