Ourivesaria Charrones is the first jewelery shop in São João da Madeira and one of its oldest house
Ourivesaria Charrones is the first jewelery shop in São João da Madeira and one of its oldest house
At door 37 of 11 de Outubro Street stands one of the oldest houses of São João da Madeira. A 1900’s goldsmith born in Arrifana and brought to São João da Madeira 100 years ago by José Nunes Azevedo, the ‘Grandfather Goldsmith’, great craftsman of the filigree and founder of one of the largest ex-libris of the city, the Ourivesaria Charrones.
In 1887 the stores were few and commerce was all settled in local fairs. The roads swarmed with all sorts of plows and wagons laden with goods, among the most refined passages where danger lurked in the eyes of the so feared ‘Maltese’, road robbers from Ribatejo who followed the routes of the fairs in search of gold.
Back in Arrifana, after crossing the region in a bundle packed with gold, the young and fearless goldsmith José Azevedo was received to the sound of ‘Charrone!’, Thus becoming the name associated with the blessed young adventurer that would come thirty years later, already in 1917 and until his death in 1972, to open the doors of the first goldsmith shop in São João da Madeira.
A hundred years later, it is the grandsons Francisco and Manuel de Azevedo who tell us the fortunes and misfortunes of the three generations of goldsmiths, passing through the busy gold years of the 50s and 60s or the jewelry madness that filled the 70s and 80. They tell us that a couple entered the store one day. They were said to be Americans, and tbrought for sale a Cartier platinum bracelet, studded with diamonds and sapphires that would have belonged to Charlie Chaplin. The Azevedo brothers did not stay with her out of suspicion, but remember the elegance and grace of the play and if it was, in fact, genuine would have been worth a fortune. On another day a Communist client came in and wanted a medal from the communist party, and he would have taken it if it had not been for the fifteen days needed to produce it, so he jokingly said, ‘Then give me a medal of the Virgin Mary!’
From these and other days, we would have more than a hundred stories, each one linked to the daily life of São João da Madeira and its people, in a presence marked for a century, built and continued by a family that dared to sell gold in a ‘Charrete’ … a long time ago.
At door 37 of 11 de Outubro Street stands one of the oldest houses of São João da Madeira. A 1900’s goldsmith born in Arrifana and brought to São João da Madeira 100 years ago by José Nunes Azevedo, the ‘Grandfather Goldsmith’, great craftsman of the filigree and founder of one of the largest ex-libris of the city, the Ourivesaria Charrones.
In 1887 the stores were few and commerce was all settled in local fairs. The roads swarmed with all sorts of plows and wagons laden with goods, among the most refined passages where danger lurked in the eyes of the so feared ‘Maltese’, road robbers from Ribatejo who followed the routes of the fairs in search of gold.
Back in Arrifana, after crossing the region in a bundle packed with gold, the young and fearless goldsmith José Azevedo was received to the sound of ‘Charrone!’, Thus becoming the name associated with the blessed young adventurer that would come thirty years later, already in 1917 and until his death in 1972, to open the doors of the first goldsmith shop in São João da Madeira.
A hundred years later, it is the grandsons Francisco and Manuel de Azevedo who tell us the fortunes and misfortunes of the three generations of goldsmiths, passing through the busy gold years of the 50s and 60s or the jewelry madness that filled the 70s and 80. They tell us that a couple entered the store one day. They were said to be Americans, and tbrought for sale a Cartier platinum bracelet, studded with diamonds and sapphires that would have belonged to Charlie Chaplin. The Azevedo brothers did not stay with her out of suspicion, but remember the elegance and grace of the play and if it was, in fact, genuine would have been worth a fortune. On another day a Communist client came in and wanted a medal from the communist party, and he would have taken it if it had not been for the fifteen days needed to produce it, so he jokingly said, ‘Then give me a medal of the Virgin Mary!’
From these and other days, we would have more than a hundred stories, each one linked to the daily life of São João da Madeira and its people, in a presence marked for a century, built and continued by a family that dared to sell gold in a ‘Charrete’ … a long time ago.
+351 256 823 223
ourivesariacharrones@gmail.com
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