The Vila Nova de Famalicão City Council will be marking the bicentenary of Camilo Castelo Branco's birth next year
"in order to make the novelist's work last and pass on his legacy to the younger generation".
Yesterday, Famalicão's Councillor for Culture and the scientific coordinator of the Camilo Castelo Branco House-Museum presented the general lines of the programme to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the writer, who despite being born in Rua da Rosa, in Lisbon's Bairro Alto, on March 16, 1825, lived for 26 years in the house of São Miguel de Seide, in Famalicão, where he lived, wrote a good part of his extensive work and ended his life.
Highlights include the launch of the Camilo Castelo Branco Literary Prize, which will be worth 7500 euros and will be awarded every two years.
It is a prize "open to all forms of literary expression to evoke the versatility and diversity of Camilo's work", explained the scientific coordinator of the Casa de Camilo, Sérgio Guimarães de Sousa.
"Camilo was a great novelist and novelist, poet and playwright and it is for this fictional intelligence and to celebrate Camilo that we have created this prize." The prize regulations will be available in June this year and the prize will be awarded for the first time in 2025.
"It's up to us to make the work of Camilo Castelo Branco last and celebrating his birth is an opportunity to consolidate Camilo's presence in Famalicão," said Pedro Oliveira, Councillor for Culture at the presentation of the programme, which starts this month and runs until 16 March 2025, the 200th anniversary of the writer's birth.
The programme prepared by the Municipality of Famalicão and the Camilo Castelo Branco House-Museum has a "strong educational slant" with five conferences, two lectures and a gathering with some of the "best scholars" of Camilo's work.
It also includes exhibitions, theatre, cinema and music. "We clearly want to bring to the table places, heritage, whether built or intangible, that inspired Camilo Castelo Branco, in a very strong commitment that Famalicão wants to give to preserving the legacy of this figure in our literary panorama," added Pedro Oliveira.
The celebrations will also be marked by the launch of various publications, including another volume of Camilo's fiction, bringing together the texts "The Witch of Monte Córdova" and "The Black Doctor's Daughter".