The Algarve’s first crematorium is due to start operating in Faro in September of 2020. The construction work in the Algarve capital began this week and will supposedly take ten months to complete.
After the construction is completed, a month will be taken to test and prepare the facility, according to Paulo Carvalho, director of projects and assets of Servilusa, the concessionaire company that is collaborating with Faro Council to build the crematorium
This recently initiated project was one of those that was highlighted by an edition of Faro Positivo, a written initiative in which Faro City Council executives show works in progress and future projects.
The crematorium, an infrastructure long called for by Algarvians, will be capable of "six or seven daily cremations".
It will also have two cremating furnaces, one for funerary cremations, and a pyrolytic furnace to burn waste associated with burials in cemeteries, such as flowers and ballot box remains.
This is currently "a big issue in the Algarve" as open-air burning is "strictly prohibited" and the solution almost always involves burying the waste in places within the cemeteries, according to Paulo Carvalho.
Moreover, the project includes a new cemetery, which will have everything that is usual in a place of this nature, such as an ecumenical chapel, a waiting room and a body preparation area. It will also have "the necessary conditions to meet the needs of the whole Algarve and, hopefully, part of the Alentejo".
“We will also have a last farewell room, a place where family members can see their loved one entering the cremator. They can't see the mouth of the cremator, of course, but it allows them to partake in that last moment. It's part of the mourning and it's a gap we tried to remedy in our crematoriums,” said the Servilusa representative.
All of this will cost around 1.1 million euros, which will be fully covered by Servilusa, and the charges of the private partner will not stop there. “Servilusa will pay us rent and we will still be entitled to a part of the profits. In addition, the specification itself provides for a discount for Faro residents and a base price for all others”, according to Rogério Bacalhau, Mayor of Faro.
The Faro Council official recalled the complicated history of this project, which has come a long way. “This project is over a decade old. On Sunday, the 20th, it is ten years since I joined the Council and there was already work being done on this project at the time.”
The new crematorium is of special importance in Faro as the municipality has been facing serious problems regarding lack of space in the two existing cemeteries.
“We have had some difficulty with the funerals. Our old Esperança Cemetery is overcrowded. Turnover has occurred, but we are talking between four and five years. At one point we had to dig pits between three and a half to four years old, for lack of capacity,” explained the mayor.
“Right now, with the work we have done here in the new cemetery, where will build much more space for graves, this problem has been minimized. But if we do not have the crematorium, we will have to further increase the capacity,” he added.
These new facilities solve the capacity problem of existing two cemeteries, and "gives some comfort to families who prefer to choose cremation.”
