Burel de Manteigas

Burel is wool cloth that has been woven and then fulled - washed and beaten until the fibres mat and the fabric shrinks dense - producing something thick, water-resistant and warm, which is what shepherds and workers in the Serra da Estrela wore for centuries. Manteigas had a wool industry built on the local churra sheep, and it collapsed in the late twentieth century along with most Portuguese textiles; the factory closed in the 2000s. In 2010 a couple bought the buildings and the old machinery, brought back former workers who knew how to run the looms and fulling mills, and restarted production - now making burel for fashion, interiors, acoustic panels and aircraft cabins alongside the traditional blankets and coats. It employs locally in a depopulating valley, which is the point as much as the cloth. There is a shop in Manteigas and others in Lisbon and Porto.

What you actually see

• The cloth - wool woven then fulled dense enough to resist mountain weather.
• The revived factory - old machinery restarted in 2010 with former workers.
• The churra wool - fleece from the local Serra da Estrela sheep breed.
• The new uses - burel in interiors, acoustic panels and aircraft cabins.

When to go

April to October for the mountain roads. One to two hours. Factory visits need arranging in advance; the shop keeps normal hours.

Honest expectations

The factory floor is not open to casual visitors - book if you want to see the machinery. Products are expensive, reflecting the labour. Manteigas is small with limited services. Winter snow closes the higher approaches.

Nearby

The Zêzere glacial valley runs above the town; Poço do Inferno is in a side gorge.