According to the aforementioned institution, the new facility aims to meet the growing demand for preschool education for children up to 3 years old in the city of Santa Maria da Feira. It will be built on land adjacent to the S. Nicolau Home and will have shared areas with that facility, ensuring an "intergenerational component."

"This issue of the relationship between the two age groups is very important, because having children and the elderly interacting every day in the garden, for example, allows the younger children to learn how to interact with their elders, which will lead them to value them throughout their lives. It also allows the home's residents to face the days with a new spirit, having the joy of the children around them," Conceição Alvim Ferraz, Santa Casa's director, explained to Lusa.

The daycare's architectural design has already been approved by the Social Security Institute – which, according to the Misericórdia director, "considered it too disruptive and too modern" – and is now awaiting the opening of the Ministry of Labor and Social Security's competition to request co-financing.

Santa Casa expects the project to move forward with construction in 2026 and "begin operations in September 2027."

The technical director of Lar S. Nicolau, Patrícia Rosado, admits that "there is some response in the region to the demand for daycare centres," but says that, thanks to "demographic changes in Feira, which has attracted more people due to the growth of its economic and industrial fabric, there are still many people who have nowhere to leave their children when they go to work and end up enrolling them in places outside the municipality."

The new daycare centre will occupy approximately one hectare of land, covering a built-up area of ​​approximately 1,462 square meters. It also includes a green strip along the banks of the Cáster River, along the eco-path that runs alongside it, under a loan agreement with the city government.

Services such as the kitchen, laundry, and administrative offices will be shared between the nursing home and the daycare centre, but even so, the provider is concerned about the costs of the project, which will generate 14 new jobs.

"It is a very expensive project, and of the total amount required, we have 20% in our own capital."

The official name of the new daycare centre has already been decided: in reference to who will benefit from the space and also to the vocabulary common during the medieval period when Feira Castle reached its peak, the educational establishment will be called "Infantes de Santa Maria."