Agenda en Cobertor de Papa

Maria do Céu Reis was born in Guarda and raised in the village of Maçainhas, where winters were harsh but, also, warm. How so? She would drape herself in the thick, waterproof, traditional wool blankets her mother and neighbours wove by hand. These were the cobertores de papa, made from the wool of churra sheep, brushed with long strokes for insulation and resilience.

For over two decades, she worked at the old José Freire factory, until it closed in 2013. The iconic blanket actually went extinct for five years but Maria couldn’t let that be the end of the story.

In 2018, she founded the association O Genuíno Cobertor de Papa to revive the craft with a new generation of weavers and volunteers. She reclaimed a 300 year-old manual loom (the last one standing in the world), trained people, and committed to hand-weaving the thick wool blankets the old way, all day.

Under her leadership, the association earned EU and national heritage trademarks, and secured support for the Papachurra project, linking the blanket to endangered sheep breeds and rural sustainability. Today, Maria leads the only certified team still making the true Cobertor de Papa.