Bairro Operário da CUF

In the beginning of the 20th century, most precisely in 1907, Afredo da Silva buys a plot of ground from the Bensaúde family in the Lezíria, between the North Beach in Barreiro and the Moinhos Beach in Lavradio, and there he builds the C.U.F. factories. It started labouring in the next year with an olive husk transformation unit in order to produce soap, which employed 100 workers. In 1909 appears the first factory of sulphuric acid and super phosphate to produce fertilizers. As the century went on, the industry continued growing and this old village of fishermen and millers, with rural characteristics, turns into the biggest manufacturing centre of the country. In the late 50s, more than 8000 workers labour on the C.U.F. factories. The main sectors of production are the organic and inorganic chemistry industries, the metallurgy industry, the metal mechanics industry and the textile industry. Along with this policy of industrial development, Afredo da Silva also started a plan he called “Social work”, constructing, in 1908, the Workers’ Quarter, Store-room, Bakery and medical post. In 1927 a school was created for both sexes, in 1942, the first refectory and, in 1949 he created the holiday’s colony for the workers’ children. During the 1950s the social building construction continues, with the new C.U.F. quarter, along with cultural and sportive substructures. The economical model of industrial concentration begins to decay in the 1970s, due to the international economic recession, and it’s completely abandoned on the April 25, 1974: C.U.F. is nationalized and the empire of Afredo da Silva gets to an end. In 1977 C.U.F. gives room to Quimigal EP and, in 1989, The Quimiparque Industrial parks is set up in order to manage the huge property that integrated the industrial complex of the old C.U.F..