The European Film Organization announced on Tuesday that the Ribera do Porto region has been elected one of the treasures of European film culture by the European Film Academy, for its historical value “which must be preserved and protected”.

The creation of the “Treasures of European Cinema Culture” list is an initiative of the European Film Academy with the aim of listing places and spaces that are emblematic of European cinema, “places of historical value that must be preserved and protected not only now as well as for future generations”, states the press release.

Among the 22 “treasures” that have been announced is Ribeira do Porto, with that academy stating that it was the setting of three iconic films by Manuel de Oliveira: “Douro, Faina Fluvial” (1931), “Aniki Bobó” (1942) and “The Port of My Childhood”. (2001).

Ribeira do Porto is the only Portuguese venue on the list released by the European Film Academy, joining locations in France, Poland, Spain, the UK or Latvia.

For the Academy, it is necessary to preserve, for example, the Babelsberg studio (Germany), where Fritz Lang filmed “Metropolis” (1927) and Wes Anderson filmed “The Grand Budapest Hotel” (2014), the Trevi Fountain in Rome, the setting for “ The Sweet Life” (1961), by Federico Fellini, or A beach in France, where Agnès Varda made “Agnès Beaches” (2008).

“Instead of simply organizing the European Film Awards, the European Film Academy will cover the history and people who made what European cinema is today,” Academy director Mattijs Wouter Knoll said in a statement.

The Academy’s goal is to annually add new sites to this list of “Treasures of Film” and to work on that legacy with new audiences.