Os Valores Culturais e Ecológicos de Património Molinológico de Lousada. Contributo entre rotas para a coesão territorial

Abstract

This dissertation proposes the Molinological Route of Lousada (RML) as an instrument of territorial and cultural cohesion, grounded in the concept of Dual Valuation - Cultural and Ecological - of the mill heritage of the municipality of Lousada, within the Tâmega e Sousa region. The research departs from a contradiction observable in the territory: while the Romanesque Route stands as a consolidated international heritage network, the more than 240 hydraulic mills inventoried by the MUNHOS Project remain systematically absent from planning instruments and existing tourism itineraries. The investigation demonstrates that these structures are not vestiges of the past but latent territorial infrastructures, endowed with demonstrated ecological, cultural and economic value. The methodology combines GIS analysis, historical cartography, fieldwork carried out in March 2026 and collaborative data from the Wikiloc platform, articulated with the municipality's current planning instruments - in particular the Operative Planning and Management Units (UOPG) of the Lousada Municipal Master Plan. The combined application of three selection criteria - Ecological Potential (A), Social and Heritage Viability (B) and Territorial Articulation (C) - over the georeferenced universe enabled the selection of 21 mills, organised into four complementary routes and hierarchised into Visit Points, Support Points and a network of passive Safeguard Points. The proposal articulates with the rural landscapes of the Mezio and Sousa valleys, with the municipal green-blue infrastructure and with the Sustainable Development Goals, demonstrating that mill rehabilitation can simultaneously constitute a strategy for ecological regeneration, intangible heritage preservation and responsible cultural tourism development. The governance model relies on Shared Management Pacts, distributing responsibilities between the municipality, private owners and the community without recourse to expropriation, and on the application for the "Northern Routes" Seal as a condition of eligibility for NORTE 2030 funding. The results confirm the initial hypothesis: the Molinological Route of Lousada can be designed and implemented through existing planning instruments, without requiring additional governance structures, revealing and formalising pre-existing territorial continuities that the Romanesque Route documents but does not traverse.