Mértola Weaving Workshop

Weaving wool blankets is one of the oldest crafts in the municipality of Mértola, in the Beja district. The Oficina de Tecelagem keeps it alive in a small workshop that is also one of the sites of the Museum of Mértola: a place of production, exhibition and teaching at the same time. The geometric motifs of the blankets go back to the town's Islamic past and echo the decoration of everyday objects found in the houses of the medieval Alcáçova quarter.

The work follows the whole cycle of the wool with traditional techniques. The wool is carded and spun by hand and then woven on traditional looms into blankets, rugs, socks and caps; the weavers also make linen pieces and rag blankets from reused cotton fabric. The workshop is run as a cooperative that was set up about four decades ago to train weavers. Today only two master weavers remain, and the town council and the museum have started a training programme so that new weavers can carry the craft on.

Visitors can watch the weavers at the loom, see a display of old tools used for wool and linen, and buy pieces made on site. Designers and textile artists regularly come for residencies, working with the weavers on new pieces based on the old patterns. The workshop is in the walled old town of Mértola, a short walk from the castle and the main church. Mértola lies on the Guadiana river inside the Vale do Guadiana Natural Park, around fifty kilometres south-east of Beja by the N122 road.