IEntitled “Napoleonic Itinerary in the Region of Coimbra”, the new digital tool provides an augmented reality experience for each of the 19 CIM municipalities and was presented at the Convent of Santa Maria de Semide to mark the European Tourism Day.
“This is the history of the people, which is sometimes forgotten in history manuals”, said the president of the CIM of the Region of Coimbra, Emílio Torrão, stressing that the creation of the ‘app’ “does not make an apology” of the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), who ordered the three invasions of Portugal during the Peninsular War, commanded by generals Junot (1807), Soult (1809) and Massena (1810).
The also mayor of Montemor-o-Velho, in the district of Coimbra, stressed that, over the course of six years, “the communities resisted and united” against the invading forces, who looted, killed and raped the populations a little all over the country.
“People don’t learn”, lamented Emílio Torrão, in order to, in an explicit reference to the current invasion of territories in Ukraine by troops of the Russian Federation, decreed by Vladimir Putin on February 24, 2022, highlighting that there are those who “continue to give importance to Napoleons” of the 21st century.
At the ceremony, initiated by the mayor of Miranda do Corvo, Miguel Baptista, the executive secretary of CIM, Jorge Brito, explained that the ‘app’ falls within the “necessary adaptation to a real trend” of tourism in terms of demand.
This initiative, which in the political component puts the Region of Coimbra “in line with the 2027 Tourism Strategy”, takes into account that the sector “is extremely important for what the Portuguese economy is”, he added, stressing the need to “contribute to this whole sustainability agenda” of tourism in Portugal.
The focus on “Napoleonic itineraries”, at the regional, national and Iberian levels, ends up “boosting what is the historic market” of the 19 municipalities in the network, involving facts and popular imagination related to the period of the Peninsular War (1808- 1814), which opposed Napoleon’s France to the alliance of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland with Spain and Portugal.
“We worked on these episodes and narratives to transform them into a tourist product”, underlined Jorge Brito, in a session in which a person responsible for the company that designed the application, Miguel Martins, also participated.
With this achievement, the CIM of the Region of Coimbra, as a national partner in the Urban Agenda for Sustainable Tourism, joined the European Tourism Day, promoted by the European Commission.
Augmented reality themes can be activated on local information totems, being made available through the ‘app’, developed within the scope of the Historic Landmarks — French Invasions initiative, of the candidacy for the Promotion of Integrated Tourist Products in the Region of Coimbra, co-financed by the European Union to under the Center 2020 program.
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