The Municipality of Ponta do Sol inaugurated, today, Casa de Colmo da Torre, one of the few houses of this nature still existing in the municipality. Located next to Estrada Regional 222, in the parish of Canhas, this new point of interest will, as in the past, have traditional activities and lively exhibitions taking place inside (such as embroidery, weaving and shoe production).
The executive invested almost 150 thousand euros in the purchase and recovery of this space, of which 60 percent was supported by European funds from LEADER (PRODERAM 2020) through ADRAMA – Association for the Development of the Autonomous Region of Madeira.
During the inauguration ceremony, president Célia Pessegueiro highlighted that “this executive has always had in mind the safeguarding of our history, our material heritage.” “In this specific case there was the happy coincidence that this was also the desire of the previous owner, to whom I take this opportunity to thank, publicly, for investing her affectionate memories throughout the process and who, generously, donated part of the estate on display”, she highlighted.
The mayor highlights that “the project also involves preserving some of our collective cultural memory and making younger people aware of the activities and crafts that took place in houses like this”.
In the first phase, this house-museum will operate from Monday to Friday, between 9:30 am and 4:30 pm, with free entry.
For Célia Pessegueiro, the Casa de Colmo da Torre constitutes, therefore, “a tourist-cultural center, where in addition to being able to visit a traditional popular housing, equipped with period furniture and clothing, craft workshops are held that include training activities in traditional arts”.
“It is a clear commitment to the policy of valuing local heritage, transmitting and preserving this collective cultural memory, traditional ‘know-how’, so that this knowledge remains alive and integrated into our intangible cultural heritage”, reiterates the president of Ponta do Sol Chamber.
On the other hand, this “is also a place of excellence for the promotion of traditional products from the municipality and the Region”, so, “to contribute to the dynamism of this area”, a small workshop was set up to manufacture and display traditional ‘flat boots’, created by artisan Duarte Rocha, one of the few (if not the only one) who continues to do so using traditional methods and who, for this reason, supplies folklore groups and the carreiros do Monte, for example.
Casa de Colmo da Torre is a building that dates back to the end of the 19th century. XIX and is a unique and typical example of a traditional house with a thatched roof. In addition to preserving the construction techniques of that time, during the rehabilitation process, some pieces of clothing were recovered, as well as some pieces of crockery and furniture, which became part of the contents on display.
Rectangular in configuration, the building consists of a 38 square meter residential building with a straw (or thatched) roof, a dry basalt stone masonry yard and an interior covered with mortar, complemented by an outdoor living space made of vineyard trellises. and garden.
The house has only two doors, located on two of its windowless facades. The hipped roof is made of stubble (straw), with a wooden frame, with the straw hidden inside by a cane-scallop covering.