In addition to its contribution to the defence of the region’s artistic heritage, the 2008 Vilalva Prize also honoured the Department of Historical and Artistic Heritage of the Diocese of Beja for its Monumentos Vivos and Festival Terras sem Sombra de Música Sacra do Baixo Alentejo projects.

Monumentos Vivos [Living Monuments] is an animation project whose guiding principle is to organise cultural activities in restored historic churches, with activities of a didactic and publicity nature. The Festival Terras sem Sombra de Música Sacra do Baixo Alentejo promotes a season of classical music in the region, with concerts, conferences and guided tours.

This department, created in 1984 to ensure the study, safeguarding and valorisation of the region’s religious cultural assets, is responsible for an exhaustive artistic inventory, conducted by José António Falcão with the support of a group of volunteer collaborators, which revealed the extraordinary collection of sacred art in the region, little known to both local communities and tourists.

With various contributions, this work made it possible to restore a considerable number of churches in the city of Beja, as well as a vast number of rural churches throughout the Baixo Alentejo. Among other actions, it also made it possible to set up local committees to safeguard historic churches, many of which had been closed and are now regularly open to the public.

This collection has been the subject of several exhibitions in Portugal and abroad, as well as various congresses, conferences and scientific meetings.

In 2005, the European Union honoured the DPHA with the Europa Nostra Prize for the Safeguarding of Cultural Heritage. The Ministry of Culture honoured him with the Medal of Cultural Merit in 2004 and the Beja Town Council awarded him the Medal of Municipal Merit in 2001.

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