The Junta de Freguesia of Pias inaugurated, on September 1st, LAVADEIRA – Pias Self-Service Laundry, a new community facility with an investment of around 50 thousand euros. The space was created to meet the needs of the population, providing a local service particularly useful for washing and drying larger items. The new facility operates autonomously, every day from 08:00 to 20:00, allowing users to utilize the equipment according to their needs.
According to the president of the Junta de Freguesia, António Moita, the idea was born from identifying an existing gap in the community. In statements to Rádio Campanário, the local official considered that LAVADEIRA constitutes "an added value for the entire population".
The choice of the name LAVADEIRA was not random. The term evokes a practice that marked the daily life of several generations, at a time when larger pieces of clothing were frequently washed in the streams near the towns. This connection to the past is present on the exterior of the laundromat through the mural "The Washerwomen", by artist Cláudio Preguiça, which represents the washerwomen by the water, in a tribute to the women who performed this task and who are part of the collective memory of the community.
The project thus seeks to combine two dimensions: providing a practical response to the current needs of the population and preserving and enhancing a part of the local memory. In the same space, the modernity of a self-service facility intersects with the recollection of a way of life in which the streams were places of work, gathering, and community fellowship.
