Lisbon – the city that cannot be explained but only feltWhere East and West meet on the shores of the Atlantic, Lisbon tells the story of character and charm, the call of the sea and the melancholy of Fado.
The city, set on seven hills, with its cobble stoned pavements and narrow streets full of Art Nouveau cafés promises a lot to discover: its downtown, the Baixa, located around Rossio, Praça do Comércio; situated on the hill around St. George's Castle, Alfama and Mouraria; Lisbon’s most traditional quarters with their typical streets, Bairro Alto and Madragoa, and set on Tagus River, Belem offer an unforgettable experience of city’s past at the present.
Its history is marked by the Portuguese Age of Discoveries, Vasco da Gama, King Manuel I, the shattering earthquake of 1755, and Marquise de Pombal, who rebuilt the destroyed city creating the Baixa Pombalina, a commercial area that still retains much of its original lay out.
As The Observer said, Lisbon itself changed, phoenix-like, into a more modern and colourful city that can be experienced in the streets, that is embraced with all the senses. The perfect city to host the EDEN 2008 Annual Conference.
Belém Cultural Center - The Conference Venue
Lisbon's most monumental and historical area is Belém, also the cultural and arts center of this impressive town. Located close to the Historical Jeronimos Monastery, in front of the Tower of Belém, the premium quality Centro Cultural de Belém Conference Centre, built in 1992, will be hosting the 2008 EDEN Annual Conference. The Center can be easily access.
Local organising partner - Universidade Aberta, Lisbon
Anniversary invitation in the Year of Intercultural Dialogue
Universidade Aberta, the Portuguese distance teaching public university, created in 1988, has its headquarters in Lisbon, two regional centres, in Coimbra and in Porto, and study centres all over the country and abroad. The University has presently more than ten thousand students enrolled, from all over the world, having already graduated over eight thousand and post-graduated another one thousand. About half of its twelve undergraduate and all of its fourteen graduate programmes are offered online, using an innovative virtual pedagogic model.
Together with its main activities, in teaching and scientific research, Universidade Aberta is highly engaged in the promotion of the Portuguese language and culture, in Portugal and abroad, especially in Portuguese-speaking countries.
Universidade Aberta is also the largest national producer of university didactic materials. In twenty years, it edited over four hundred books, produced three and a half thousand hours of videos and broadcasted six thousand hours of TV programming.
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