CLEMENTE MENÉRES

The Tua train strategist

Fig. 1 – Clemente Menéres

1-Terrain and transport in Trás-os-Montes

�  The Trás-os-Montes terrain is very rugged: with mountains beyond mountains, with plateaus and valleys shaped by rivers, chiseled onto the earth’s crust.

Fig. 2 – The rugged terrain of the region

�  These terrain forms created difficulties in building communication routes and the flowing of its products and underground riches to the market. It was necessary to build tunnels and bridges to smooth out curves and slopes.

�  The few roads that existed in the nineteenth century were poor and only connected the big population centers of the time.

� The regional paths were narrow and winding and difficult to travel.

� The mountain ranges enclosed the region and caused its isolation.

� The difficulty of accessing the region was a problem in its socioeconomic and cultural development.

2- The train as a factor in the development of the region �  This melancholy

scenario of long and difficult journeys was changed a bit after the appearance of the train.

�  Railways were projected along the valleys of its rivers.

Fig. 3 – First train of the Tua line (replica)

�  Fontes Pereira de Melo succeeded in introducing the railway to Portugal, having signed various contracts with Portuguese and foreign companies between 1851 and 1856.

�  From 1856 to 1900, railway lines were built rapidly and about 60% of the 3,616 km constructed until 1956 were built in this period (MENDES, 1993: 375).

�  It was during this period that the railway was built in the Trás-os-Montes region and reached Mirandela (1887) and years later, Bragança (1906). Fig. 4 – Fontes Pereira de Melo

� With the inauguration of the Douro Line, between Oporto and Pinhão, in 1880, two different opinions concerning the path to reach the Spanish border emerged: 1st, the Line should turn north after reaching Tua, passing near Bragança until reaching the border; 2nd, the line should continue straight until Barca d’Alva.

�  The 2nd path won, but a northern connection, connecting Foz Tua and Mirandela, was promised for later.

3- Clemente Menéres and the fight for the Tua train � Clemente Menéres took

advantage of this indecision to start his pursuit and saw to the approval of the construction of the Tua Line, since this would be of great utility for his investments in Trás-os-Montes and for the region as a whole. Fig. 5- Clemente Menéres (1913)

� After a brief stay in Brazil , this businessman launched himself into the bus i ne s s wor ld and e s t ab l i s hed commercial firms.

�  In 1874, he wanted to get raw materials to supply national and international markets (Europe, America and Asia), so he travelled to Trás-os-Montes, where he bought properties and cork oaks.

� He became aware of how difficult it was to circulate by horse along the paths and narrow roads that served the regions he passed through.

� The train would be important to fight against the bottlenecks in the circulation of people and goods.

� Mirandela was the foothold that could help with his business strategy.

�  In order to channel the production from the Romeu Estate to the market, Clemente Menéres felt the need to fight for the railway, for a connection that united Mirandela, and later on Romeu, to Oporto and, through the Douro Line, to Europe.

�  The roads of earth and stone “were awful and coach transportation did not help much. The acquisition of the train was vital for Menéres, since it helped flow the respective products to the market: wine, olive oil, cork, and fruit.”

�  In 1878, Fontes Pereira de Melo visited Trás-os-Montes and was able to verify the isolation of this region’s people, which lead him to exert his influence to achieve the railway connection between Foz Tua and Mirandela.

�  Throughout this year, two projects for the construction of a line that would connect Mirandela to the Douro Line were presented. The path that went through the left margin of the Tua river was chosen. This path would serve more people and would cost less to build.

� Clemente Menéres continued fighting for the cause, in line with the Municipality of Mirandela: both acknowledged the advantages of building this line.

� The marketing of cork, wine, olive oil and fruit was doomed to failure without the proper essential infrastructures, which is why it was urgent to build a line between Oporto and Romeu.

�  In 1881 and 1882, Clemente Menéres imagined telegrams from the Trás-os-Montes people, affirming that they would revolt if the public authorities did not worry about the region and made it so many of these were published in Lisbon and Oporto newspapers of wide circulation.

�  The public needed to know about the pressing need of the railway in the Trás-os-Montes and build a favorable attitude towards its construction.

�  He was the “voice clamoring for the Foz Tua-Mirandela railway” and never gave up that position.

�  Clemente Menéres was pressured by the defenders of the Salamanca railway, who proposed he keep quiet with his pretensions.

�  Clemente Menéres joined up with influential people, with plenty of interference with the government of that time, which lead to the establishment of a group that pressured the Minister of Public Works.

�  Hintze Ribeiro’s choice of the narrow track, in order to save 400 contos de réis, caused discontent from Clemente Menéres, the deputies of Bragança, and the deputies of Oporto. All had wanted wide tracks.

�  Clemente Menéres had already established contact with the “Pereyre banking house, of Paris”, that had authorized him “to declare that it was ready to take its railway to the Portuguese border, and even take the construction of the border to Tua.” (MENÉRES, 1915: 28-29).

�  The Municipality of Mirandela and Clemente Menéres joined efforts to enforce their appeals before the king, before the government, and before the House of Peers, so that the line be built.

�  Mirandela had longstanding trade with Oporto, which is why the line would be important for the region, for the city of Oporto, and for its Commercial Association.

� Clemente Menéres’ endeavor had a decisive period in 1883 with the approval of the bases for construction of this line by way of public tender.

�  In this tender, there was nobody interested in building the line.

� Clemente Menéres got into contact with Henry Burnay, who dedicated himself to the exploitat ion of ra i lways and other businesses, but he was not interested in this venture.

�  Clemente Menéres, with constant and tenacious persistence pressured the bodies of power and decisively contributed to the approval and construction of the Foz Tua-Mirandela line.

� He competed, on 14 December 1883, for a new public tender, but this one was won by the Count of Foz, who transferred the construction rights to the Companhia Nacional.

�  The Municipality of Mirandela “decided to appoint a committee composed of a company of volunteer firemen (…) to manage the preparations for the celebrations” of the inauguration of the works on 16 October 1884.

�  The construction of the line began in Mirandela and ended up presenting two different paths: flat until Abreiro; very rugged and uneven from Abreiro to Tua. The shape of the Tua valley in that deep and steep path raised many difficulties.

Fig. 6 – Inauguration Party (September 29, 1887)

4 - Conclusion �  The Foz Tua-Mirandela connection was a matter of “life and

death” for Clemente Menéres, for the following reasons: the project launched in the Romeu Estate had absorbed a large quantity of contos de réis: the properties, due to the bank loans contracted in 1885, were mortgaged; without the train, the indispensable means of marketing the production of cork, wine, and olive oil, the agricultural enterprise was doomed to fail.

�  Clemente Menéres did not attend the inauguration of the line, since he was forced to leave for Brazil, to see if he could “save the property”.

�  Having been near bankruptcy and ruins, he never let himself be defeated and “always fought for human, material and regional interests with exemplary warmth and zeal”, having been one of the greatest defenders of the appreciation of Trás-os-Montes (REIS, 20/12/1964).

�  -he provided assistance to the Santa Casa da Misericórdia in Mirandela; �  -he fought against mediocrity and the backwardness of the region and

carried out activities, that were at the time revolutionary, that breathed new life into the region;

�  -he stimulated local farming, accompanied in all aspects life in Mirandela for several decades, supported the poor and encouraged the rich to launch themselves into work that was useful to society;

�  he sought to always “give work to the rural population of its parishes and neighboring towns”, which is why in the area covered by his farmhouse, there was no work crisis: “the exemplary dedication that the Menéres family commits to their lands, to their facilities, and to their magnificent and unvulgar welfare work… What a shame it is to not have a similar case in each district of the country! The Menéres launched, in rural Portugal, an unprecedented pattern.” GRAÇA, A Voz. Lisboa. 21/9/68: 1);

�  -“it has always been my dogma to compete for the happiness of the people that surround me, I am aware that a great number of villages might have disappeared, as it happens in the upper district [of Bragança] where I do not own property, if no one would have provided them with labor.” (MENÉRES, 1915: 33);

�  -in a time where education was a privilege of the rich, he created, and maintained during many decades, a primary school;

�  -in a time where bridges in a rural area were considered utopia, he ordered the construction of the first reinforced concrete bridge made in Portugal in Romeu;

�  -in a time where it was rare to put wealth to good use, he dignified the cork oaks and in Mirandela assembled the first cork stopper factory to exist in Portugal;

�  -in a time where public transportation was practically impossible in the district, he launched himself into the bold venture of the railway.

�  In the memories of time that made history, it is important for us to recall Clemente Menéres’ fighting cause for the Foz Tua-Mirandela line. That is what we achieved with this work.