The same great content and more in your pocket, the most up-to-date guidebook to the Camino Portugués available.
Wise Pilgrim APPSao Joao da Madeira built its fortune on hats. The felt and fur hat-making industry that drove the town's growth in the late 19th century is documented in the Museu da Chapelaria — the only hat museum on the Iberian Peninsula. It's on the way out of town, poorly advertised, and looks closed from the outside. It isn't. Don't miss it.
When hats fell out of fashion, the workers shifted to making shoes. The town is now considered Portugal's shoe capital, and the industrial heritage defines the place — the main square (Praca Luis Ribeiro, actually a large roundabout) is dominated by a column celebrating local industry.
All services available. The arrows and shells can get lost among the visual distractions of a working industrial town.
Sao Joao da Madeira's hat-making tradition began in the mid-19th century. By the early 20th century, the town was producing hats for export across Europe and the Americas. The shift to shoe manufacturing in the 1960s and 70s was a practical response to changing fashion — the skills were transferable, the factories were adaptable, and the entrepreneurial spirit remained.
Leave town from the Praça Luís Ribeiro along the Rua Antonio Jose de Oliveira Junior.It is more suburban walking from here to Arrifana.
