The framework law on cultural heritage ties heritage to national identity and counts as heritage what Portugal has signed abroad.
- Law 107/2001 of 8 September is the framework law on cultural heritage.
- That law ties cultural heritage to the understanding, permanence and construction of national identity.
- Article 2(4) requires cultural heritage to include intangible goods that are structural parts of Portuguese collective identity and memory.
- Article 2(5) adds that anything treated as cultural heritage by international conventions binding on the Portuguese State is cultural heritage too.
- Portugal approved UNESCO's 2003 Convention by Parliamentary Resolution 12/2008, and Decree-Law 139/2009 created the National Inventory.
Source: Lei de Bases do Património Cultural (Lei n.º 107/2001), artigos 1.º e 2.º
Portugal has twelve elements inscribed on UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage lists, from fado in 2011 to the moliceiro boat in 2025.
- Fado, the urban song of Portugal, was inscribed in 2011, the Mediterranean diet in 2013 and cante alentejano in 2014.
- Then came the manufacture of cowbells in 2015, Bisalhães black pottery in 2016 and Estremoz clay figures in 2017.
- Next were the winter festivities of the Carnival of Podence in 2019, the community festivities of Campo Maior in 2021 and falconry in 2021.
- Ponte…nas ondas!, a safeguarding model on the Portuguese-Galician border, entered the Register of Good Safeguarding Practices in 2022, and equestrian art in Portugal in 2024.
- The most recent entry is the moliceiro boat, the naval carpentry craft of the Aveiro region, inscribed in 2025.
Source: Convenção da UNESCO de 2003 para a Salvaguarda do Património Cultural Imaterial, aprovada pela Resolução da Assembleia da República n.º 12/2008
Not every Portuguese element sits on the same UNESCO list, and two of them are shared with other countries.
- Three Portuguese elements are not on the Representative List but on the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.
- That is the list of what risks disappearing, and it holds the manufacture of cowbells (2015), Bisalhães black pottery (2016) and the moliceiro boat (2025).
- The Mediterranean diet and falconry are multinational nominations, shared with other countries, and are not Portuguese alone.
Source: Convenção da UNESCO de 2003 para a Salvaguarda do Património Cultural Imaterial, aprovada pela Resolução da Assembleia da República n.º 12/2008
National Pantheon honours have a criterion written into law and are granted by a resolution of the Assembly of the Republic.
- Law 28/2000 of 29 November governs the National Pantheon honours, granted to honour and perpetuate the memory of distinguished Portuguese citizens.
- Article 2(1) lists the grounds: high public office, high military service, spreading Portuguese culture, and literary, scientific and artistic creation.
- The same paragraph includes defending the values of civilisation, for human dignity and the cause of freedom.
- Granting the honours is the exclusive competence of the Assembly of the Republic and always takes the form of a reasoned resolution.
- The 2000 law has been amended twice, by Law 35/2003 and Law 14/2016.
Source: Lei do Panteão Nacional (Lei n.º 28/2000), artigos 2.º e 3.º
Since the 2000 law, the Assembly of the Republic has granted the honour to six people from very different fields.
- With the 2000 law in force, Parliament granted Pantheon honours to Amália Rodrigues (2000), Manuel de Arriaga (2003) and Aquilino Ribeiro (2007).
- Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen (2014), Eusébio da Silva Ferreira (2015) and Aristides de Sousa Mendes (2021) followed.
- Before the 2000 law, names such as Almeida Garrett and Humberto Delgado were already there.
- The list brings together a fado singer, a President of the Republic, two writers, a footballer and a consul who defied Salazar to issue visas.
Source: Lei do Panteão Nacional (Lei n.º 28/2000), artigos 2.º e 3.º
The cultural heritage framework law treats Portuguese as heritage, and the Constitution fixes it as the official language.
- The cultural heritage framework law says that the Portuguese language, as a foundation of national sovereignty, is an essential element of Portuguese cultural heritage.
- The Constitution says, in Article 11, that the official language is Portuguese.
- Under the Nationality Law, language has its own rules of proof and is proved separately from culture.
Source: Lei de Bases do Património Cultural (Lei n.º 107/2001); Constituição da República Portuguesa, artigo 11.º