The Textile Industry in Antequera

It’s raining off and on again today. Happy Farmers! We are only here for another 3 days and still so much to explore. Antequera is not a big city with 42,000 people but it has such a big history and is located at the confluence of 4 rivers and in a valley. Perfect for farming.

Looking at our city map, we realized that we could visit a few of the 32 very old churches as we haven’t seen any yet or visit one of the 11 monasteries or convents or check out the textile museum that is on the other side of the fortress. We are a little tired of the churches so we decided to walk with umbrellas to the textile museum.

For centuries flour and olive oil mills had been situated on the rivers, along with water wheels, dyeing troughs and small forges. During the 15th Century, the textile industry took off in Antequera.

The quality of the fabrics was so good that King Charles III of Spain designated the factory as a Royal Factory in 1765. In the mid-19th century, the factory was modernized and became the centre of the cotton, linen and wool textile industry.

In the 20th century, isolated towns, ineffective trade and strong competition in other national markets, created a crisis. The textile industry came to its end in Antequera in the 1970s.

Anyways, we interrupted a man who was eating his breakfast to ask if we could see the museum. He kindly unlocked the door and told us to check out the displays at our leisure.

The permanent exhibit downstairs explained how the textiles were made in Antequera with examples of the old machinery, tools and materials and also photographs and other graphic documents. When we were stuck with understanding the Spanish technical words, we used Google translate. It was great!

We noticed a little map on the table and realized that there was a 3 km road/trail that ran beside the river with all the old Textile factories on it. It looked interesting so we opened up our umbrellas again and went for a walk.

The small Villa River supplies water to the town of Antequera. What remains of the old factories are the irrigation channels, aqueducts, bridges and chimneys, Some buildings have been renovated by their owners, while others remain in ruins or have been neglected. The machines have all disappeared. One man who owned one of the big buildings was wondering if we wanted to buy it with a bunch of our friends!

The walk was peaceful and quite beautiful. It didn’t rain the whole time and we got our exercise for the day in, almost 7 km.Read more