The Fábrica d’El-Rei, also known as the Fábrica Nacional de Sarjas e Baetas, was created in Covilhã in 1677, beside the Ribeira da Carpinteira. The first contract brought together three private contractors: André Nunes, from Covilhã; Luís Romão Sinel, from Lisbon; and Jorge Fróis, also from Covilhã.

André Nunes and Jorge Fróis were New Christians from Covilhã, descendants of Jews forced to convert in Portugal after 1497. Their role places New Christians inside one of the early royal attempts to organize textile manufacture in the city.

New Christian contractors in Covilhã

The contractors were not marginal figures in this process. They were investors, negotiators and agents of production in a factory created for sarjas and baetas, woollen fabrics used in the Portuguese economy of the seventeenth century.

In this context, the Fábrica d’El-Rei shows how New Christian capital, commercial networks and technical knowledge were absorbed into royal economic projects. Covilhã was already tied to wool production, and the new factory strengthened that connection.

Wool, water and production

The location followed the practical logic of the wool industry. The Ribeira da Carpinteira supplied the water needed for washing, dyeing, fulling and finishing cloth.

The factory belonged to the working landscape that later made Covilhã one of the main wool centres of Portugal. Its importance was not only architectural or industrial. It also preserved the presence of named New Christian contractors inside the formation of Covilhã’s textile economy.

The Inquisition and the Fróis Nunes family

The later history of these families shows the contradiction of the period. The Crown used New Christian capital, networks and technical capacity in textile production. At the same time, the Inquisition continued to persecute people of Jewish origin.

Jorge Fróis and his family were directly affected. Later records refer to arrests and sentences for “Judaism” within the Fróis Nunes family. In 1703, Jorge Fróis Nunes, son of Jorge Fróis and Maria Henriques, was caught in the action of the Holy Office.

André Nunes remained connected to the factory into the final years of the seventeenth century. In 1695, he still appears in notarial documentation as a contractor of the Covilhã factory, together with his wife Joana Nunes.

In the following years, members of his family also appear in inquisitorial records, including Simão Nunes Rios and Violante Nunes, children of André Nunes and Joana Nunes. Even when New Christians worked, invested and negotiated within Portuguese society, the Inquisition continued to see them as New Christians.