Municipal Medals award culture and liberty in the city of Porto

The Municipal Medals award ceremony of Porto took place on 9 July at Casa do Roseiral, the official residence of Mayor of Porto, Rui Moreira.
Altogether, 25 medals were awarded in the name of culture and liberty. This year's edition distinguished Prince Amyn Aga Khan and Alberto de Sousa Martins, former Minister and assemblyman.  

For the Mayor of Porto both represent two strong identities of the city which deserve celebrating.

"Today we award the Medal of Honour of the City to a great patron of arts, with tolerance concerns and to a great democrat, a brave man, to whom no one dared ask where he was on 25th April 1974. What best way to celebrate this Porto of ours than combining culture and liberty?" Rui Moreira affirmed.

Ruled out of this ceremony were "those whose memory is poor or that long for stagnation", added Rui Moreira, "from the time when Porto subdued to a parochial stock, waiving its right to have a voice, when it wanted to be the best behaved or the best student in a street that despised it".

"Today (9th July) marks the date Porto celebrates the Entry of the Liberation Army of Dom Pedro in the city, in this very simple but meaningful ceremony, where Porto distinguishes those that deserve collective thankfulness. The people and the institutions that we honour today were not chosen by a President or a majority, but this was the result of a process that engaged all the political forces represented in the Municipal Assembly; and the result was a proposition that was unanimously accepted by the Municipal executive.

"Certainly that this general consensus within the political forces in the city did not make headlines; had there been a lack of political consensus, what headlines would there be; however, the distinction of these illustrious citizens and institutions, the awards to merit and recognition are not, unfortunately, headlines in our society", enhanced the Mayor of Porto.

First things first, and what's most important is to thank those who work for the common good.

At present, Porto "is paving its way", Rui Moreira enthused, "which is certainly more challenging and riskier, as Porto wants to value its attributes and wants to have a say, without dwelling on regrets; and Porto is paving its way!".

"This Porto is Portan, no doubt, and Portuguese by nature, and it is European by ambition. All this is possible within the uncertainty of change, because its society is restless, it has world. And at present, Porto goes back to having world as it was its origins. And we are surely different because we don't forget", Rui Moreira asserted.

As Bénard da Costa recalled "it was through Porto that Portugal widened the door to Europe and it was also through Porto that it resisted to submit to it, as an act of reassuring its singularity found in no other region in the country."

"The gratitude embedded in the simplicity of a medal granted on 9 July represents how we are, how we recognise and welcome. After all, this is our essence, our way of living", Mayor Rui Moreira concluded.

See below the name of the 25 personalities and institutions awarded by the Municipality of Porto in 2019:

Medal of Honour of the City

- Príncipe Amyn Aga Khan

- Alberto de Sousa Martins

Municipal Medal of Merit - Gold Medal

- Albano da Silva Ribeiro

- Antero Joaquim Braga de Sousa

- António Manuel Sampaio Araújo Teixeira

- Arnaldo Baptista Saraiva

- Associação Comunidade de Bangladesh do Porto

- Comunidade do Bangladesh no Porto

- Associação de Karaté

- Comunidade Hindu

- Cristiano Joaquim Marques Trindade Pereira

- Maria de Fátima Machado Henriques Carneiro

- José Fernandes de Lemos (Fernando Lemos)

- Grupo de Xadrez do Porto

- Henrique Luz Rodrigues

- João Luís de Mariz Roseira

- José Carlos Costa Marques

- José Manuel dos Santos Gigante

- José de Magalhães Valle de Figueiredo

- Luís Manuel de Faria Neiva dos Santos

- José Lopes Baptista (Padre)

- Rancho Folclórico do Porto

- Rosa Maria Meireles Gomes Gonçalves (Rosinha)

- Universidade Popular do Porto

- Zulmiro Neves de Carvalho