A fábrica de lanifícios de Padronelo, em Amarante (1855-2022): memória e reconstituição espacial da primeira unidade fabril do concelho de Amarante

Founded in 1855 as Garcia Ribeiro & Co., Padronelo’s woollen mill worked as a textile industrial unit until the mid‑1960s, when it was reconverted into a vegetable oil processing plant. Although this last activity had ended, the mill infrastructures maintain industrial functions, from hydroelectric generation to industrial storage complex. However, it is the original woollen mill reference that prevails in the local memory tradition. The mill it is, as such, a historical and social reference that is still alive in the community. This situation contrasts with the total absence of archaeological and historiographical scientific production in this key industrial unit in the North of Portugal. At the same time, the entire complex still has a considerable archaeological legacy that deserves a more systematic intervention. It was in order to fill those knowledge gaps about Padronelo’s woollen mill, and seeking to understand the process of foundation and development of the mill, its impacts on the territory and on the national production, as well as its reference of inspiration and its replication models in other parts of the country, namely in Beira Alta, that we undertook this exploratory study of archaeological and documentary synthesis, which results are now presented.