Bacia do Ave Textile Industry Museum

The town of Vila Nova de Famalicao stands in the Vale de Ave (the valley of the Ave river), a heavily industrialised region 30 km north of Oporto, where cotton manufacture was important from the mid-nineteenth century.

The museum, established in 1989, is located in a nineteenth-century textile warehouse, tells the story of the cotton industry in the valley, with particular emphasis on the experiences of the workpeople. The collection of historic machinery from the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries includes examples from England, France, Spain and the United States. The museum also organises visits to local textile enterprises that are still operating.