Portugal will once again celebrate the Sant Jordi Day in a land of great literary names such as the Nobel Prize for Literature José Saramago or Fernando Pessoa, among others. After last year's edition, the Government delegation will once again bring the book and rose festival closer to the neighboring country with a program in which the participation of the Castellers de Vilafranca stands out. This group will perform different performances from April 21 to 23 in various emblematic places in Lisbon and the Alentejo region.
"Our objective is to make Catalan culture known during Sant Jordi and offer Portugal a UNESCO World Heritage Site such as the castells", highlights Rui Reis, Government delegate in Portugal. Rui explains that they have been working on the preparations for months and in January he got to know the human tower first-hand and visited their headquarters.
Specifically, the castells will be formed in emblematic places of the Portuguese capital such as Praça do Município (Friday, April 21 at 3:30 p.m.), the Castelo de São Jorge (Sunday, April 23 at 10:00 a.m.) and Padrão dos Descobrimentos ( Sunday, April 23 at 3:00 p.m.). In parallel, in some of the acts the Government delegation will distribute roses and Lisboa Tourism books. As an aperitif to the Diada, on April 20 an exhibition on Catalan Gothic will be inaugurated at the National Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon in collaboration with the Barcelona History Museum.
In addition, the human towers will rise on Saturday, April 22, in two Portuguese UNESCO World Heritage cities: in Elvas in the morning and in Évora in the afternoon. In these municipalities there will also be book markets. In fact, the city of Elvas was already able to discover Catalan popular culture first-hand with the celebration of the Aplec Internacional de Adifolk last summer.
The Castellers de Vilafranca, who celebrate their 75th anniversary this year, will be welcomed by the local authorities. In this sense, the delegate of the Government in Portugal points out the "high institutional level" of this year's Sant Jordi events, which will be attended by the general director of Popular Culture and Cultural Associations of the Generalitat, Adelaida Moya, of the mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, and of his counterparts in Elvas and Évora, among other authorities.
In 2020 and 2021 the Diada was organized in Portugal in a virtual format due to the pandemic and last year it was possible to celebrate it in person in complicity with the libraries of Lisbon and Barcelona. The edition coincided with the centenary of the birth of José Saramago, preacher of Sant Jordi in 2004 in the Saló de Cent of the Barcelona City Council.
