‘The Torres Vedras Lines are much more than an event in history. They represent the history of the men, women and children who built them, and of the generations who grew up and lived in their shadow.’
(CLÍMACO, 2010, 153)

An inescapable reference in the fields of military engineering and architecture, the Lisbon Defensive Lines, consecrated as Lines of Torres Vedras, are an irreplaceable resource for narrating European history, favouring an enriching, perspectivating, and polyhedral interpretation of a common past.

Gravitating around the heritage of the Lines of Torres Vedras, the Historical Route embodies a tourism-cultural itinerary of a thematic character, whose management is anchored in the Association for the Tourist and Heritage Development of the Lines of Torres Vedras. Comprised by municipalities and entities of both public and private nature, this association is responsible for guaranteeing the preservation and safeguarding, conservation and rehabilitation, valorisation and dissemination of the heritage that constitutes the central core of the Route.

In its praxis, it fully recognizes the assumption that ‘Europe's cultural heritage is a common source of memory, understanding, identity, dialogue, cohesion and creativity’1 - ‘a shared resource and a common good for the benefit of future generations’2.

As an impulse and horizon, stands out, at the core of this association, the experimentation of new models of governance and management of cultural heritage, and the assaying of local development strategies that maximize the intrinsic potential that the Route holds.

Over the years, the Historical Route of the Lines of Torres Vedras has, with firm and confident steps, established itself as a multi-generational and multi-segment tourism-cultural product, capable of condensing a system of edutainment/culturtainment experiences. An integrated and differentiated tourism offer, based on the complementarity between resources and endogenous products (emerging and/or already structured/consolidated), of which Military Tourism is a prime example, begins to grow body and substance. In this regard, programs aimed at niche markets in the field of cultural and landscape touring gradually gain expression and an international dimension, in close connection with transnational cultural itineraries that bring together different territories, projecting them into a common identity space.

The Lines of Torres Vedras are unequivocally generators of business opportunities that contribute to the revitalization of the socio-economic fabric, with a special focus on the creation of micro-businesses.

The Grande Rota Pedestre, and the various circuits that it hosts, have been increasing recreation and qualified leisure time activities for residents as well as for visitors and tourists, allowing for the expansion of the scope of tourist entertainment companies that offer thematic cultural visits . Concomitantly, wineries, farms, and wine tourism units are beginning to shape offers dedicated to the Lines of Torres Vedras in connection with economic agents.

All these encouraging signs call for a constant investment in the co-construction of knowledge, bringing Academia, municipalities, private actors, and communities together.

Research is, admittedly, the substrate for the creation and innovative recreation of content with applications throughout the value chain. Niche tourism (faithful to the value of sustainability) and the customization of the offer demand high connectivity between the various actors and agents, preluding close collaboration. Making visible this collective action, lessening its opacity to citizens, is an all-time commitment, fulfilled, refreshed, updated, and renewed with this publication!

Ana Umbelino

P.S. The present times, marked by an unexpected pandemic crisis, with a notable impact on the tourism industry, demand strategy, resistance, inventiveness, and cooperation, by way of the mutualisation of resources. Yesterday as today, bridges must be built, alternatives and solutions must creatively be thought in the face of adversity, to trace new paths and horizons... that recreate the role of the tourist, making him truly a ‘caregiver’ of the heritage. In this demanding process, and in the constant search for balance and commitment between the real and the (im)possible, the Lines of Torres Vedras are undoubtedly a source of inexhaustible inspiration.