The Silves City Council formally received the documentary and archival collection of the Cork Museum, through a donation contract signed by Dutch entrepreneur Erick de Vlieger, who acquired the property, and by the president of the municipality, Luísa Conduto. The signing took place at the Town Hall, precisely on September 3rd, the date on which the conquest of the city by King Sancho I in 1189 is celebrated. The entrepreneur expressed satisfaction at being able to deliver to the municipality documents that he considered important and of enormous historical significance for the municipality and for the families linked to the old factory.
The Cork Museum, installed in the old English Factory, reopened on July 11th, after 16 years of closure. The space had closed in 2009 due to the insolvency of the owning company. The factory was founded on January 2nd, 1894 by the cork company Avern, Sons & Barris and, in 1918, under the direction of Victor Sadler, it was modernized, becoming one of the largest cork processing units in the country.
The collection is composed of thousands of documents and photographs, which represent a return to the population and to Silves of a part of their identity. Luísa Conduto highlighted that the archive tells not only the history of the society and the people who worked there, but also the commercial and social relations that, for about a hundred years, marked the history of Silves through the cork industry. The documentary set, which was already inventoried when it was previously forwarded to the Faro District Archive, will now be the subject of study and scientific processing.
