Jardim Botânico de Coimbra: contraponto entre a Arte e a ... - artez
Jardim Botânico de Coimbra: contraponto entre a Arte e a ... - artez
Jardim Botânico de Coimbra: contraponto entre a Arte e a ... - artez
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auto-tanques, no caso <strong>de</strong> a água das minas<br />
se tornar insuficiente.<br />
Em Fevereiro <strong>de</strong>sse mesmo ano era aprovada<br />
a organização do respectivo projecto<br />
para ser cumprido. Todavia, só em Setembro<br />
<strong>de</strong> 1960 se abriu o concurso para a sua<br />
arrematação. Ficaria enterrado, como previsto,<br />
<strong>entre</strong> a estátua do antigo lente e o<br />
portal principal. Esta “ocultação”, justificada<br />
por “razões técnicas”, <strong>de</strong>ixou também,<br />
como se lê na memória <strong>de</strong>scritiva, “<strong>de</strong> criar<br />
um problema <strong>de</strong> or<strong>de</strong>m arquitectónica <strong>de</strong><br />
ingrata solução” 27 .<br />
O antigo Colégio <strong>de</strong> S. Bento, em parte do<br />
qual se encontrava já o Instituto <strong>Botânico</strong>,<br />
recebeu igualmente a atenção da CAPO-<br />
CUC que, <strong>de</strong>pois da pon<strong>de</strong>ração <strong>de</strong> várias<br />
hipóteses, acabou por o reservar para os Institutos<br />
<strong>de</strong> Botânica e Antropologia. As obras<br />
<strong>de</strong> adaptação e <strong>de</strong> repartição do espaço por<br />
ambos os estabelecimentos foram lentas<br />
e por inúmeras vezes interrompidas, atingindo<br />
o seu termo já na década <strong>de</strong> sessenta.<br />
No que concerne ao Instituto <strong>de</strong> Botânica, a<br />
documentação consultada revela a troca <strong>de</strong><br />
correspondência, nos anos <strong>de</strong> 1944 e 1945,<br />
<strong>entre</strong> Manuel <strong>de</strong> Sá e Mello e o Cônsul da<br />
Grã-Bretanha, com vista a obter referências<br />
acerca das instalações e organização do Instituto<br />
<strong>Botânico</strong> <strong>de</strong> Kew “para serem tomadas<br />
em consi<strong>de</strong>ração no Instituto <strong>Botânico</strong><br />
<strong>de</strong> <strong>Coimbra</strong>”. As dificulda<strong>de</strong>s <strong>de</strong> comunicação,<br />
oriundas do confronto bélico em<br />
<strong>de</strong>curso, acabaram por <strong>de</strong>terminar que os<br />
contactos <strong>entre</strong> a CAPOCUC e Londres<br />
se fizessem através do Cônsul <strong>de</strong> Portugal<br />
nessa cida<strong>de</strong>. Por intermédio <strong>de</strong>ste, o director<br />
do Royal Botanic Gar<strong>de</strong>ns <strong>de</strong> Kew aten<strong>de</strong>u<br />
às solicitações <strong>de</strong> Abílio Fernan<strong>de</strong>s,<br />
interessado em receber informações sobre<br />
as instalações daquele <strong>Jardim</strong>, das suas estufas<br />
e da estruturação dos seus herbários e<br />
respectiva <strong>de</strong>sinfecção 28 . Consequentemente,<br />
torna-se plausível pressupor a influência<br />
inglesa, ao nível científico, na remo<strong>de</strong>lação<br />
do Instituto <strong>Botânico</strong> <strong>de</strong> <strong>Coimbra</strong>.<br />
Além <strong>de</strong> um anfiteatro e <strong>de</strong> gabinetes para<br />
64<br />
a series of buildings backing onto the St<br />
Sebastian aqueduct as part of the project<br />
to provi<strong>de</strong> access areas to the University<br />
campus, approved in August of that year.<br />
The <strong>de</strong>molition of the houses built into the<br />
arches began at the end of 1959. The <strong>de</strong>sire<br />
to clear away the space in front of the College<br />
and aqueduct to isolate them and display<br />
them in all their “purity” also led to the<br />
felling of the trees that obstructed their<br />
view. Ironically, this also coinci<strong>de</strong>d with the<br />
<strong>de</strong>molition in 1959 of the last arch of the<br />
aqueduct, which had for <strong>de</strong>ca<strong>de</strong>s been consi<strong>de</strong>red<br />
a national monument, in or<strong>de</strong>r to<br />
link Martim <strong>de</strong> Freitas Street with the road<br />
that went around the Faculty of Science<br />
buildings.<br />
After the completion of the improvements<br />
to the Botanical Institute and the extinction<br />
of CAPOCUC in 1969, the Gar<strong>de</strong>n did not<br />
un<strong>de</strong>rgo any further serous intervention<br />
until the end of Abílio Fernan<strong>de</strong>s’ period<br />
as curator, in 1974, the year of the “carnation<br />
revolution”. The <strong>de</strong>mocratization of<br />
Portuguese society and of the University as<br />
an institution will also have had an impact<br />
upon the strategies and objectives of the<br />
establishment. Today, as always, the conservation<br />
and rehabilitation of the cultural and<br />
natural heritage <strong>de</strong>pend upon political and<br />
i<strong>de</strong>ological <strong>de</strong>cisions, the financial resources<br />
available and social pressures. <strong>Coimbra</strong>’s<br />
Botanical Gar<strong>de</strong>n has not escaped this web<br />
of influences, nor will it in future; thus it<br />
constitutes a space par excellence for the<br />
confrontation and conciliation of the various<br />
synergies that affect our heritage.<br />
This survey of the Gar<strong>de</strong>n’s evolution reveals<br />
that it has <strong>de</strong>veloped out of a counterpoint<br />
between Art and Science and represents a<br />
compromise between what was dreamt and<br />
what was achievable, what was <strong>de</strong>sired and<br />
what was possible. It bears traces of the Italian<br />
and English influences that characterized<br />
Portugal in the Pombaline era, the economic<br />
and political vicissitu<strong>de</strong>s of the 19 th<br />
century, and the various nationalisms that