Loures opens Papa Francisco Park on Friday

Loures City Council will inaugurate the Papa Francisco Park on Friday, in the Bobadela riverfront area, which was refurbished after the World Youth Day (WYD) held in Lisbon in 2023, the municipality announced this Wednesday.

“Parque Papa Francisco, located in an area of ​​35.6 hectares, is a new leisure and social space that, in the future, will have restaurant areas, children's playgrounds, a dog park, a skate park , paddle tennis courts and various sports facilities”, says the municipality of the district of Lisbon, which, along with the capital, hosted major WYD events in its territory.

The decision to name the now-named Parque Tejo after Pope Francis was made by the municipality of Loures at the end of April (Lisbon did so in May).

At the time, the executive led by socialist Ricardo Leão indicated that the objective is to “ pay homage to the legacy of proximity, social justice and care for the planet that Pope Francis represents and perpetuate in the territory the memory of his visit to Loures in 2023 ”, in a space previously occupied by logistics containers.

The area, he recalled, “was forgotten for decades”, and has now been returned to the population.

In the note released this Wednesday, it is mentioned that the inauguration, including a solemn blessing by the Patriarch of Lisbon , Rui Valério, will also be attended by Cardinal Américo Aguiar, president of the JMJ Foundation at the time of the Catholic event.

The ceremony marks the start of the Loures Festival and will be followed, in the evening, by a concert by singer Tony Carreira, at 10 pm, with free entry.

On the same night, there will also be a show called “Francisco, todos juntos na casa comum” (Francisco, all together in the common house), by Artelier? By TNR.

Located on land in the municipalities of Lisbon and Loures, covering a total of around 100 hectares, Parque Tejo was created after the transformation of a rubbish dump, the Beirolas landfill, into a green park, as part of the preparations for WYD.

This riverside area of ​​the Tagus, north of Parque das Nações, in the municipalities of Lisbon and Loures, hosted a night vigil and the final mass of the world meeting, with an estimated 1.5 million people, mostly young people, attending.

Pope Francis died on April 21, at the age of 88, after 12 years as pontiff. Born in Buenos Aires on December 17, 1936, Francis was the first Jesuit and the first Latin American to reach the leadership of the Catholic Church.