The Antequera textile industry
In the 18th century, there were 87 textile manufacturers in Antequera, who took advantage of the energy generated by the movement of river water to undertake their activity. The Ribera building, an old weaving factory, is now the home of the Textile Museum, an exhibition that recreates in detail how the looms worked, including those of the famous Rojas Castilla factory. There are a number of paths along the banks of the Villa river where you can walk and appreciate what remains of that era of industrial splendour.
The textile industry in Antequera has been documented since the end of the 15th century, with a predominance over time for wool manufactures, although silk and linen have always enjoyed a certain presence. In the mid-eighteenth century, those employed in Antequera represented 10 percent of the total number of Andalusian textile craftworkers, while in the 1830s Antequera woollen manufactures accounted for more than 60 percent of the Andalusian textile subsector.
Manufacturas Rojas Castilla was a family business with the title of Royal Factory granted by Queen Isabel II, and played a leading role in the final, flourishing era of the textile industry in Antequera. By adopting new fabrics, it was able to compete with eastern Spain.
Currently what remains is the memory of a glorious, albeit difficult period, a landscape conditioned by this industry and seen in twenty or so buildings of great interest. The "Textile industry of Antequera" is a permanent exhibition that discovers the textile culture of the town by means of a sample of machinery, tools, materials, photographs and other graphic documents that explain the process of obtaining the different fabrics and producing the corresponding products.
As a complement to the exhibition, there is a walking tour where you can learn about the textile history and the factories that stood along the banks of the Villa River, a tributary of the Guadalhorce and a source of power for mills and factories as it flowed through what was the El Henchidero manufacturing centre. It has now been restored and converted into an interesting educational centre.
