A Broom Factory?

The Escovaria de Belomonte is a kind-of shop? Or a factory? Or a museum?

After seeing the Porto Puppet Museum, Chris passed by a door and when he looked inside he saw an interesting sight. Colourful brooms were hanging from the ceiling of the room and he saw a sign with the word ‘escovaria’ on it, that he recognized as meaning Broom Shop. But it was more than a broom shop. It was a small workshop where people made brooms and brushes. Interesting. The enthusiastic owner gave us a little tour.

Making brushes is a family business that was created in 1927 by the owner’s wife’s grandfather. He started out in a room in his house and then when his business grew, he moved to his present location on Belmonte street.

In 2007, his granddaughter and her husband took over the business. Maria de Fátima who is an expert in the art of making brushes also works in the shop. We watched her as she threaded wires into a wire brush. A painstaking job - ouch! All those fine wires...

Their process of making brushes and brooms continues to be all manual - cutting the wood, shaping it, treating the hair (of pigs, goats, horses or badgers) and filling the brush with the hairs. Each brush/broom would take hours to make.

Vaughan just had to buy a little brush. He’d been looking for a brush like that for years and never had luck in finding one and here they are. A good birthday present for himself!

In this area of Lower Porto, we once again saw our friend, Henry the Navigator, as a statue with a bird on his head, pointing to the sea. The house that he was born in is supposed to be somewhere close by but we were ready to have a sightseeing break so we headed home.Read more