The salt pans surrounding the city, the lagoon salt and fresh waterand its canals interwoven with streets, the traditional fishing boats“moliceiros” and the sweet “ovos moles” (one of the best keptsecret among local sweets), are usual topics when talking aboutAveiro. Nevertheless, this city is much more than its traditionalsymbols.

Aveiro is a dynamic average sized city, that offers its citizens the samepossibilities and facilities as a big city without bringing that urbanchaos which interferes with a good quality of life.

It is the heart of a developing industrial region; Aveiro is also a citywith a lot of trade and culture, and many leisure time activities:cinema, theatre, music, art, sport, nightlife.

One can not point at Aveiro without highlighting the presence ofwater. The lagoon which surrounds and enters the city and sandybeaches a few miles away have a big appeal for fans of wild life andaquatic sports.

As a city on the coast, Aveiro profits a lot from salt production, fishing, shipbuilding and maritime trade. It has a large Jewish population.

In 1808 a gap to access the sea was built through the natural lagoonsandy barrier. The building of the railway between Porto and Lisbonwas considered an important step for the industrial development.

The name Aveiro comesfrom “Alavario” which thecity was first called; adifferent appellation is “TheVenice of Portugal” becauseof the lagoon and canals.

Aveiro

Tradition inTiles

Despite the lagoon being oneof the most attractive featuresfor tourists, its traditional tilemanufacturing (“azulejaria”) isremarkable on a national andinternational level.

Vista Alegre was actually theregion where high qualityporcelain and glass wereexported all over the world. Inthe 19th century many tilefactories started up, supportingthe local economy and heritage.

Lagoon of Aveiro

As wetland, the “Ria de Aveiro” can offer lots of resources,especially in terms of flora and fauna and also landscapes ofrare beauty because of its wide water fields where manysports and tourist activities can be practised.

A complex ecosystem to preserve

This lagoon, like theestuaries of the Sado, Tejoand Formosa rivers, is oneof the most importantwetlands in Portugal.

Like many other wetlands,the Ria de Aveiro isextremely important forbird conservation, most ofall the aquatic ones.

It is strongly influenced by the sea water and fresh waters from rivers which flow into it, such as the Vouga river.

As the main character,the water aroundAveiro has beensharply influencinghuman activitiesthroughout time.Harvest of sole, seabass and eel fishes,together with bivalves(cockles, clams,mussels) still providesfood to coastalpopulations.

This huge patch of wetland has a big impact on weather conditionsalso in surroundings.

The Ria de Averio represents abig concern for conservation;indeed, it is classified as aSpecial Protection Zonebecause of birds being such animportant part of “Natura2000”.

Nowdays it is necessary tomonitor and preserve thesehabitats and species by means ofdifferent actions.

Such conditions favour a diversity of habitats which are ideal places for certain species to grow; some of them are under European Directives protection.

The traditional saltproduction in the region

The salt exploitation started during the 10th century and continuedin the following centuries till the crises in the 17th one, when thesame economic activity developed in the south of the country.

It has lasted up to currenttimes, although it is now anirrelevant activity for theregion.

The salt from this lagoon (maybe the best one), was exported to all areas inthe country and also to Northern Europe. It was mainly used for salting meatand fish, primarily cod fish.

From the cleaning ofpans to the salt storage,this salt production hasalways followedtraditional techniques,despite changing times.

It was a duty for “marnotos”(typical workers in “salinas”) toexecute all the different stepsof salt production from middlespring up to late autumn: avery hard work.

Salt was kept in whitepiles which turned greyafter being covered; itwas later moved toware houses (such as“palheiros” in CostaNova).

The centre of this activity was“São Roque” canal along whichwe can still see ruinedexamples.

Aveiro: a region with a greatfishing tradition

Averio still plays animportant economic rolein the fishing industry.

The very first fishingfocused on the lagoon areawhilst, over time, alsodeep sea fishing alsodeveloped.

For many decades the “Aveirenses” have been dedicating themselvesto short and middle coastal fishing; it was actually from here wherefishermen left to go fishing cod and other fishes in the North Sea.

Such an activity shaped thehabits of local people so muchthat one can still notice it in theeconomy, food choices andsailing skills and a taste forsailing.

All these activities connected to the sea have extended the importance of themarine trade, with an increasing number of products exported by Averio’sPort, that is becoming better equipped. The goods railway up to the port wasin fact opened at the end of march.

The tradition in the cod fish fishing

Portuguese people found outthe value of cod fish in the 15th

century, because of specificneeds from those times whenthey were away for a long timeto cross the ocean and theyneeded to salt this fish.

After many attempts with otherfishes, the cod fish was theselected species when it wasdiscovered near the North Pole,on the coast of Newfoundland.

The “bacalhau” could last for a long time and it was easilyafforded by those people who could not buy fresh fish;moreover, its taste was more enjoyable than other salted fishes.

It became a pillar in the national cuisine.

All the process occurred in veryharsh conditions, with lowtemperatures and on smallwooden boats (“doris”), which leftfrom a mother ship (“lugre”), alsomade out of wood and for whichsails were the only means ofpropulsion.

In the early 30s it was decided to also put engines in these ships.

In 1935 trawling started, first bythe “Santa Joana” and then bythe “Santo André” ship.Consequently, work conditions offishermen started improving.

Nowadays, Portugal is the main consumer of cod fish.

Net fishing (“xávega”) craft

This traditional typeof fishing is nowendangered but stillpractised in Vagueriaand Foradouro.

It is different than other kinds becauseboats go out while staying connected tothe shore by a rope; they fish by trawlingalong over 500 meters away from thecoast; the nets are hauled onto the beachby oxen pulling the rope (nowadaysreplaced by tractors).

Pulled nets will bring to the beach (the so called “saco”) all fishes caught while trawling.

Typical traditional boatsUntil half 20th century, most of thelocal socio-economic activities wereclosely based on the lagoonenvironment, which requires avariety of craft suitable for differentactivities.

In addition to agriculture, therehave been all activities relatedwith salt: production, storage,trade. Moreover, fishing in riversand open sea, and transport forgoods and people.

So “moliceiros” forharvesting and trading theseaweed and “bateiras” forfishing and hunting inwetland have been created.

The “moliceiros” boats are the most sophisticated in terms ofdecoration. The name is due to “moliço”, that makes sandysoils very fertile.

They have a flat bottom so are good for navigatingthe shallow waters of canals; they are very stable.Their length depends on place where they were built.

They are made from pine and can last around 12 years.

The decorations paintedon the outside of the hullare the most obvious. Thepanels decorating bothsides of the prow andstern are painted directlyonto the wood. Thistraditional artistic practiceis without parallelelsewhere in Portuguesepopular culture.

The mercanteis are heavy boatsfor moving cargo such as salt, soare designated “barco saleiro” –salt boat.

Bateiras are smaller craft, painted in simple colours or not at all,generally intended for fishing or hunting and as such have a form andfunction different from the other types.

In the next few years Aveiro will see considerable development of its infrastructure, and host some large events.

Only a small number of Portuguese vessels will be involved in fishing, since most fish is now imported.

In environmental and urban terms, there will be small changes in certain areas of the city, providing more green spaces and pedestrian areas.

Furthermore one of the areas in which Aveiro is a leader is in innovation and technology.

With this presentation we have tried to give some information aboutthe city of Aveiro and its surrounding region in an environmental andcultural context, taking as a starting point one of its distinctivefeatures, the estuary.