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Water Reservoir
In the Royal Textile Factory, the internal water supply and distribution to the several workshops and dyeing rooms was made using a large water reservoir, located in a space walled between the Cloth Dye-house room, the Skein Dye-house room and the Furnace Corridors.
The water, coming from water-springs in the hillside of Serra da Estrela, crossed under the ground the Marquês d’Avila e Bolama Street through a system of granite gutter pipes and lead conduits. It should be noticed that in a prominent pillar on the opposite building pile cap wall and above the Tears Fountain, there is an opening closed-off by a small iron door, signalling the water conduits that fed this reservoir.
This reservoir preserves the ancient pipe system of the water distribution circuits.
The inner part of the reservoir was subjected to the archaeological intervention with the aim of integrating it in the Permanent Exhibition of the Museum. It had several bottom stones removed to grant the access and the museological paths because initially it was walled up.
One of the water entrances in the reservoir. The water came from the mines located in the Serra hill and was transported through an underground conduits system to supply this water reservoir, important for the manufacture working.
Reservoir built over the ground level in order that the height difference allowed the water conduction to the pipes.
The reservoir was walled between the Cloth dye-house and the Skein dye-house. After the archaeological intervention of this area, a passage between the two spaces was built, being the reservoir integrated in the museologic course.
In one of the Furnace Corridors, an arch of the water conduit was reconstituted. It is possible to observe an original granite pipe, recovered during the archaeological intervention.
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