LISBON, PORTUGAL, October 14, 2015 (Blasting News, translated from the original Portuguese): A twenty year old desire of the Shiva Temple Social Solidarity Association to build a temple in Lisbon is about to manifest. Using plans drawn up by architect Jose Troufa Real, the project of the Shiva Temple will be built on land ceded by the Municipality of Loures. The parcel of land, comprising 17,000 square meters, is located next to the Torres da Bela Vista neighborhood in Santo Antonio dos Cavaleiros. The infrastructure will include several spaces for socio-cultural activities and religious services as well as features such as a memorial garden and a reflecting pool. The municipality is supporting this construction, since August, with the loan of earth moving machinery for site preparation and an investment of about US$100,000.
Most of the Hindu community in Portugal reside in Santo Antonio dos Cavaleiros, Chelas and Sacavem-Portela sections of the Lisbon metropolis. In 1984 the Shiva Temple Social Solidarity Association was created in order to bring together the Hindu community in the area and promote the development of their religious and social activities. With the legal registration of the association in 1991, plans were drawn up for a Hindu temple, on land donated by the municipality of Loures. The Association built a temporary hall in 2001, after a decade of meeting in the community hall in Santo Antonio dos Cavaleiros and the Humberto Delgado Secondary School. Hinduism Today’s editor, Paramacharya Sadasivanathaswami, visited the site in June, 2013, and blessed the sanctum location with a rudraksha from our trees here in Hawaii.