This post is based primarily on
Don's notes, occasionally supplemented with MT's notes from our Camino in 2016.
When information from other sources is added—for further explanation to readers
or to satisfy our own curiosity—that is set off in a text box (as this one).
Most of the photos that accompany
this post are from Don’s camera (with a caption indicating the time it was
taken); those from MT’s iPhone are indicated by “MT” placed at the beginning of
the photo caption. Photos from any other source (such as the public domain
Wikimedia Commons) indicate that source in the caption.
The
following information about the city is repeated here for the benefit of anyone
joining the blog at this point.
São
João da Madeira
(St. John of the Wood), commonly abbreviated as SJM, is a cidade (city, pop. 21,713) and concelho
(municipality) in the District of Aveiro and the Metropolitan Area of Porto.
SJM is the smallest Portuguese municipality in area with a single freguesia (civil parish) corresponding
to the area of the city. Its strong development in the second half of the 20th
century led to the expansion of its urban area beyond the confines of its small
municipality. It became an autonomous municipality of the nearby Oliveira de Azeméis
in 1926 and was elevated to the status of city in 1984. The city is known for
its tradition in the industrial area, particularly in the manufacture of hats
and footwear.
The origins of SJM go back a long
way, as evidenced by the legacies of Celtic, Roman, Arab, and Visigothic
civilizations. However, the first written mention of the name was in documents
of 1088, still before the emergence of Portugal as a country, which referred in
Latin to “Sancto Ioanne que dicent Mateira.” The patron saint of the
village/city/municipality is São João Baptista (St. John the Baptist). The
Madeira part of the place name seems to have to do with the abundance of wood
in the region. For many centuries, the small village of SJM went unnoticed in
the national context. In the middle of the 19th century, however, it became the
major focus of the Industrial Revolution in Portugal. The production of hats
was the first industrial activity there. In the 20th century, the headgear
activity would decline while the footwear industry grew, eventually becoming
the main economic activity in the city.
We
woke at 7:20 am and went to breakfast (included) at Hotel AS. At breakfast, we met a couple from the US, who were also
using the Follow the Camino service. They said he was walking and she was
taking a train, bus, or taxi due to respiratory problems. He was using a Google
Fi smart phone that he said works in 140 countries; the phone costs $360, and
he pays $30 a month.
Sunday, September 11, 2016, 9:31 AM - São João da Madeira: view from Praça Luis
Ribero in front of Hotel AS, toward nearby Capela de Santo António.
We
went to the nearby Capela de Santo
António for mass at 10 am. This was our first mass in Portugal where the
people held hands during the Our Father, and they made a big deal of the kiss
of peace. However there was no carimbo
stamp for pilgrims.
9:31 AM - São João da Madeira: Capela de Santo
António façade - with statue of St. Anthony and bell tower (mild telephoto 54
mm).
The Capela de Santo António (Chapel of St. Anthony) is located on the
Largo de Santo António (Square of St. Anthony) in São João da Madeira. In the
same place, there was a chapel that dated back to 1680 and was demolished in
1934. The current chapel, in Neo-Romanesque style, was inaugurated in 1935. It
has the peculiarity that the interior is engraved with the names of those who
contributed to its construction.
11:34 AM (Cropped) - São João da Madeira: Museu da
Chapelaria – old photo that writing at top left identifies it as “Portugal – S.
João da Madeira, Largo e Capela de St.o António” [Square and Chapel
of St. Anthony], apparently the older chapel from 1680 that was demolished in
1934.
10:57 AM - São João da Madeira: Capela de Santo
António - statue of St. Anthony on what looked like an old pulpit on left side
of nave; azulejo tiles on lower part
of wall (mild telephoto 46 mm).
MT 11:00 AM - São João da Madeira: Capela de Santo
António – azulejo tile with cherubs
in top border.
10:57 AM - São João da Madeira: Capela de Santo
António – another statue of St. Anthony on main altar (mild telephoto 76 mm).
10:57 AM - São João da Madeira: Capela de Santo
António – view from rear of nave to main altar in apse.
MT 11:05 AM - São João da Madeira: Capela de Santo
António – stained glass window from life of St. Anthony, at front right of nave.
10:58 AM - São João da Madeira: Capela de Santo
António – stained glass window from life of St. Anthony, at rear right of nave,
with railing of high choir/balcony (mild telephoto 76 mm).
10:58 AM - São João da Madeira: Capela de Santo
António – stained glass window from life of St. Anthony, at rear left of nave,
with railing of high choir/balcony (mild telephoto 76 mm).
10:58 AM - São João da Madeira: Capela de Santo
António – stained glass window from life of St. Anthony, at front left of nave
(mild telephoto 76 mm).
After
mass we went to the Museu da Chapelaria
(Museum of Hatmaking).We had met a lady who told us she had had a fabulous
guided tour there. We weren’t sure it would be open on Sunday. (It turned out
that, according to the museum’s website, their Sunday hours are normally 10 am-12:30
pm and 2:30-6 pm, and admission is normally €1.50, but is free on Sundays
between 10:30 am and 12:30 pm.) However, when we asked if they had a carimbo stamp for our pilgrim credencials, the man at the desk gave it
to us and said we could go in free and just take our time, since there would be
no guided tour. We were there from 11:15 to 11:45.
11:50 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– exterior with sign at top on building at near left for “Chapéus” (Hats) and
entrance farther to right.
11:49 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– exterior, entrance under sign at top of building for “Empresa Industrial de
Chapelaria Limitada.”
The Museu da Chapelaria (Museum of Hatmaking or Millinery) is overseen
by the City of SJM. In 1996, the municipality purchased the assets (machines,
tools, documents, etc.) of several companies that had closed. It also bought
the building of one of the most important hat companies, the Empresa Industrial
de Chapelaria (EICHAP), where the museum is now located. After the
rehabilitation of the building, the museum opened in 2005. A guided tour shows
the history of this factory and the hatmaking industry in SJM. The permanent
exhibition contains numerous industrial machines and tools used in the
manufacture of hats, witness records of hatmaking workers, and a large
collection of hats. It is divided on three floors into specialized areas in the
different stages of hatmaking.
In the 19th century, there wasn’t
a man or woman leaving the house without a hat; it denoted style, elegance, and
was part of the charm of that era. Therefore, it is not surprising that the
production of hats was the first industrial activity in SJM. The first hat
factory was established in 1802 by J. Gomes de Pinho. One of his former factory
workers, António José de Oliveira Júnior, was one of the main drivers of
industry in the village. In 1892, he founded the first factory to manufacture fur
hats, and in 1914 he established the firm that would become one of the greatest
symbols of SJM, the Empresa Industrial de Chapelaria Lda, which was fully
mechanized.
The Empresa Industrial de Chapelaria, Limitada (Industrial Company of
Hatmaking, Limited), known by the acronym EICHAP and known in SJM as “Fábrica
Nova” (The New Factory), was established in 1914. At that time, it was the
largest factory on the Iberian Peninsula. Its founder, António José de Oliveira
Júnior, was a very important and beloved person in SJM. (The street on which
the factory is located is named Rua Oliveira Júnior.) Using innovative
production techniques and always up to date on market needs, this factory would
introduce the production of merino wool hats. Known as the “chapéu da moda” (fashionable hat), this
hat was very different from the coarse wool hats produced until that time. As
the only factory in Portugal prepared to produce the “fashionable hat,” EICHAP
had a monopoly on it for many years. It followed the entire history of the
headwear industry in Portugal, from its mechanization in the early 20th
century, its heyday in the 1940s. and its progressive decline starting in the
1950s, when the wearing of hats began to go out of style. The factory employed
and trained many generations of hatters and craftsmen, until it closed its
doors in 1995.
São João da Madeira: carimbo stamp
from “museu chaperaria, s. joão da madeira.”
11:15 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– postcard at reception desk showing villagers gathered around harvested corn
by an hórreo.
MT 11:22 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– humorous sculpture of man with multiple faces, wearing hat, at reception
desk.
11:18 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– felting machine; the placard identifies this as “máquinas para feltros de lã”
(machines for felting of wool) and says that one of the machines came from
FEPSA and the other from EICHAP, and that a combination of the two machines was
necessary for the production of felt from wool; sign in background says: “do pêlo
ao feltro” (from fur to felt).
The Feltros Portugueses S.A.
(FEPSA) felt hat factory was established in SJM in 1969 by merging 6 earlier
manufacturers of felt hats and operated until 1990.
MT 11:24 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– beginnings of a hat; part of sign in background that said “do pêlo ao feltro”
(from fur to felt).
At this point, Don began to take a photo of the placard for each machine before taking one of the machine itself.
11:18 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
–placard for “multi-roller” with Portuguese text stating that it came from
EICHAP and with description provided by former employees that can be translated:
“This
was a machine that the people called the misery. It was very large, and the hat
went around the base (...) each time starting to shrink more, to shrink and [to
run?] the misery went to the highest bidders.”
“There
are the multirollers, which had many rollers (...) [the hat] passes some, of
one machine and then another, each time with a higher temperature and more
movements.”
11:18 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– multiroller machine.
11:19 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– sign about “Oliveira Júnior – O Industrial, O Polítoco, O Benemérito” (The
Industrialist, The Politician, The Benefactor).
11:19 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
–placard for “laboratório de tinturaria” (laboratory of dying) with Portuguese
text stating that it is a reproduction of the one from EICHAP and with
description provided by a former operator that can be translated:
“It
was dying hats (...) they gave me the order with the color that I had to dye,
and I had a recipe book, and (...) I did the color that they asked.
“If
it was black, it took a great deal of dye, if it was of the poucochina [?] color of dye ... 5 grams.
“It
was a thing that was a great responsibility (...) one that needed a precise
number of grams of dye, (...) for example, two grams of this, one of that, and
half a gram [of another] (...) very often, [the order] came for a color that
did not exist, and I had to experiment to make it.”
11:19 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– “laboratório de tinturaria” (laboratory of dying).
11:20 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
–placard for “bastissosa e arco” (bastissosa
[?] and arch) with Portuguese text stating that it came from the FEPSA felt hat
factory and with descriptions in Portuguese provided by former employees that
are unfortunately too hard to read but say something about cones, felting, and
the Industrial Revolution.
11:21 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– “bastissosa e arco” (bastissosa [?] and arch) machine.
11:21 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– colored hats.
11:21 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
–model of the entire hatmaking process with workers and machines.
MT 11:27 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– part of model of the hatmaking process with workers and machines.
11:21 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– large machine that ran wool through to wash it (no sign).
11:22 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– black hats with large sign for “do feltro ao chapéu” (from felt to hat).
11:22 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– placard for “máquina de afinar abas e copas” (machine of finishing brims and
tops) with Portuguese text stating that it came from EICHAP and with
descriptions in Portuguese provided by former employees that can be translated:
“Work
is done only with sandpaper, only sandpaper is used in this (...) it is to sand
the top for finishing ... the hat before being finished comes with all the hair,
every gadelhudo [?] comes and then it
is finished.”
“Work
has to be [done] with sandpaper and abrasive, wheel, [and] steady hand ... it
is still very artistic, has a technique, and one has to pay attention; if it is
scraped too much, it is spoiled; if it is scraped too little, it has to be
scraped again (...) the abrasive, naturally, must always be in good condition,
giving [enough] for X pieces, X felts, and at the end of that, new sandpaper
has to be put on ... also, we still run the risk of the first one not being
equal to another of the same series, one being more finished and the other less
finished.”
"It
is called the finishing, that is, the hat comes from the fula [?] with a lot of hair and then it is scraped with sandpaper.”
11:23 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– “máquina de afinar abas e copas” (machine of finishing brims and tops).
11:23 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– placard for “enformadeira” (machine that forms or shapes) with Portuguese
text stating that it came from EICHAP and with descriptions in Portuguese
provided by a former operator that can be translated:
“We
call it the enformadeira, which is
the machine that has some claws that grab the hat and there[by] give it a form
that first begins to give it the shape of a hat.
“[It
is a] machine that is for pulling the hat and putting [it] in the shape (...)
the hat goes through the machine )...) that is called Nossa Senhora de Fátima
[Our Lady of Fátima].”
11:23 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– “enformadeira” (machine that forms or shapes).
11:23 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– placard for “máquina de abrir copas” (machine for opening tops) with
Portuguese text stating that it came from EICHAP and with description in
Portuguese provided by a former employee that can be translated:
“Machine
for opening tops (...) after opening the top of the hat, it has to arrear [?] the brims, to make the brim
(...) [After] it was esgaçado [?] to
the turn, it begins to be more open.”
11:23 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
–“máquina de abrir copas” (machine for opening tops).
11:24 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– light blue hat and card for “máquina de acamurçar o feltro” (machine for
making the felt chamois-like).
11:24 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– placard for “batedor” (beater) with Portuguese text stating that it came from
EICHAP and with description in Portuguese provided by a former employee that
can be (roughly) translated:
“Here
it was through ointment of the straps beating on the hat that the powder goes
out, not now, now it has a vacuum cleaner that has a groove where it passes the
hat, the operator is there and the powder is vacuumed out.”
11:24 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– “batedor” (beater).
11:24 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– many hats on table and on floor along wall.
11:26 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– work station with several Singer sewing machines, some perhaps for stitching
on hatbands (Don’s photo of placard was too blurred to read).
MT 11:32 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– Singer sewing machine stitching between brim and top of hat (stitches already
around edge of brim).
11:26 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– hats along wall and table with more hats; most of these hats have hatbands.
Toward
the end of our self-guided tour, we came to a display about the history of
hatmaking in SJM; we also watched a video about the Oliveira family and
hatmaking in SJM.
11:34 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– old photo of SJM on video screen; writing at top left identifies this as
“Portugal – S. João da Madeira, Largo e Capela de St.o António”
[Square and Chapel of St. Anthony].
11:36 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
–photo on video screen of old engraving of factory labeled “Fábrica a Vapor de
Chapéus de Feltro – A Águia – Vieira Araújo & C.a” [Steam-powered
Factory of Felt Hats – A Águia – Vieira Araújo & Co.], with registered
trademark of that company at the left (leaving out the a Vapor [Steam-powered] part of the name, but adding the location “S.
João da Madeira”).
11:36 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
–photo on video screen of old engraving of same factory labeled “Fábrica a
Vapor de Chapéus de Feltro – A Águia – Vieira Araújo & C.a”
[Steam-powered Factory of Felt Hats – A Águia – Vieira Araújo & Co.], but
without the registered trademark of that company.
11:37 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– straw hats in display case.
MT 11:30 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– ladies hats in display case.
11:40 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– placard for “moldes e formas” (molds and forms).
11:40 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
–molds and forms.
11:40 AM - São João da Madeira: Museu da Chapelaria
– more molds and forms.
At
about 1:30 pm, having read about the Camino route from Grijo to Porto, we asked
the desk clerk at Hotel AS to call
Follow the Camino again and ask for the transport to take us all the way to
Porto on Monday morning.
Then
we went to Restaurante Ponto Zero
for lunch (once again using our voucher for dinner): for 1st course, we both
had cream of vegetable soup (the waitress also brought us tuna salad and
bread); whole 750 ml bottle of Dona Carla red Douro wine (we drank it all);
1.5-liter bottle of water; main course: both had bacalhau (da forno) com broa [cod (from the oven) with bread] that
came with cornbread, green cabbage, and cooked potatoes split with [cheese?]
inside; desert: both had slice of fruit tart with whipped cream on side (served
on slate).
1:46 PM - São João da Madeira: Restaurante Ponto
Zero –outside menu of sugestões
(suggestions); we had the bacalhau com broa.
2:18 PM - São João da Madeira: Restaurante Ponto
Zero – Don’s bacalhau com broa.
2:19 PM - São João da Madeira: Restaurante Ponto
Zero –tuna salad and two kinds of bread.
2:22 PM - São João da Madeira: Restaurante Ponto
Zero –MT and Dona Carla wine with our meal.
2:53 PM - São João da Madeira: Restaurante Ponto
Zero –back of Dona Carla wine bottle; additional information in Portuguese and
English includes “Principal grape varieties from Douro: Touriga Franca, Roriz,
Tinta Barroca and Touriga Nacional”; “Partly matured in french oak casks”; Deep
ruby colour, ripe fruit aroma and nuances of vanilla, round palate with soft
tannins”; [serve with] “Grilled food, meat particularly white meat, stews,
pizzas and cheese”; “Quality wine, may form some natural sediment with time.” 13% alcohol, 750 ml.
2:54 PM - São João da Madeira: Restaurante Ponto
Zero – Don’s fruit tart and whipped cream served on slate.
MT 2:51 PM - São João da Madeira: Restaurante Ponto
Zero – our waitress.
Then
we walked to the Igreja Matriz de São
João Baptista, which was closed.
3:12 PM - São João da Madeira: fancy house on the
way to Igreja Matriz.
3:14 PM - São João da Madeira: approaching Igreja Matriz de São João Baptista.
The Igreja Matriz de São João Baptista (Mother Church of St. John the
Baptist) was reconstructed in 1884 with an altarpiece dating from the previous
century. In its interior is a wealth of gilded carving and of iconographic and
sculptural motifs.
3:15 PM - São João da Madeira: Igreja Matriz de São
João Baptista – façade.
3:16 PM - São João da Madeira: Igreja Matriz de São
João Baptista – statue on steps in front of church with plaque: “Papa João
Paulo II 1920-2005” (Pope John Paul II 1920-2005).
Then
we returned to Hotel AS, where the
door of our room had unusual substitute for a do-not-disturb sign, left over
from an earlier event in which the hotel participated.
6:33 PM - São João da Madeira: Hotel AS – sign on door
of our room with www.viagemmedieval.com
on ring around doorknob, “27. Jul – 07. Ago 2016 - Viagem Medieval em Terra de
Santa María XX Edição” (27 Jul – 7 Aug 2016 - Medieval Voyage in the Land of
St. Mary – 20th Edition) on hilt of sword and “Resting from the Medieval Journey”
in Portuguese and English and “Do Not Disturb” in Portuguese, Spanish, English,
French, and German (only the Portuguese, Spanish and German said “Please”) on
the blade.
6:33 PM - São João da Madeira: Hotel AS – sign on
door of our room with www.viagemmedieval.com on ring around doorknob, “27. Jul – 07. Ago
2016 - Viagem Medieval em Terra de Santa María XX Edição” (27 Jul – 7 Aug 2016
- Medieval Voyage in the Land of St. Mary – 20th Edition) on hilt of sword and
“Enjoying the Medieval Journey” in Portuguese and English and “Please Service
the Room” in Portuguese, Spanish, English, French, and German (this time all 4
say “Please”) on the blade.
MT 6:39 PM - São João da Madeira: Hotel AS – sea
kelp soap in our room.
In
the evening, we ate the fruit MT had bought the day before, read about Porto in
Brierley’s notes, and looked at the “walking notes” from Follow the Camino for
the Coastal Route after Porto. (We noted that there were consistently more km
in the walking notes than in our itinerary from Follow the Camino.)
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