The 40th edition of the Folk Medicine Congress took place over three days in Vilar de Perdizes, in the municipality of Montalegre, concluding this Sunday. Throughout the congress, specialists, researchers, associations, local communities and visitors shared experiences and knowledge around traditional knowledge, ancestral practices and the relationship between Man and nature.
In the closing session, the Vice-President of Montalegre Municipal Council, Ana Isabel Dias, highlighted the congress's capacity for renewal, which managed to "preserve memory without being trapped by the past," transforming tradition into a heritage that continues to be "questioned, reinterpreted and, above all, passed on."
The local leader also paid tribute to Father António Fontes, the congress founder, to whom she attributed the merit of having realized, four decades ago, that folk knowledge deserved a place for meeting, reflection and dignity. Ana Isabel Dias argued that the path built since then has made the congress an integral part of the identity of Vilar de Perdizes and the municipality itself.
The closing of the 40th edition marks not only the end of another congress, but the continuity of a story that began four decades ago. In Vilar de Perdizes, folk medicine remains a meeting space between generations and an expression of an intangible heritage that continues to find in the territory, its people and collective memory the strength to remain alive.
