Introduction

The Wool Museum, also known as MUSLAN, constitutes an interdepartmental Centre of the University of Beira Interior. It is an organism with financial and administrative autonomy under the tutelage of the Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior (Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education).

The Wool Museum being part of the Portuguese Network of Museums since 2002, has the mission of preserving the patrimony related to one of the most ancient human industries, in a territory that, has Serra da Estrela as a matrix and Covilhã as a historical centre, that has soon opened up to international contacts.

By visiting it, we hope that, through the singularity, the authenticity and the exemplariness of the testimonies preserved therein, you will have a better understanding of one of the most ancient industries, the Wool industry. In the beginning, it ascertain itself as a pure act of survival of the human specie, and in the course of time, this industry has assumed a growing quality and artistic expression that have followed the development of our societies until today.

“The thread from the past weaving the future” is the motto of the Wool Museum that, according to this principle, defends an active preservation of the patrimony that is under its guard.