The culturally valuable Cork Museum in Silves is set to reopen on 4th July this year, after spending 16 long years closed and slowly decaying. This assurance was given to reporters from the Algarve’s Sul Informação news agency by Erik de Vlieger, a Dutch businessman who has lived in the Algarve for several years and who, in April last year, purchased the much-loved ‘Fábrica do Inglês’ complex along with the museum’s collection.
Speaking during an interview held inside the Cork Factory’s museum element, surrounded by the historic machinery that forms one of its main attractions, the entrepreneur admitted that when it reopens in just over two months’ time, the museum “will not be perfect”. “But if we wait until everything is perfect, another year will pass. And that cannot happen,” he said.
De Vlieger explained why he became interested in the fate of both the Fábrica do Inglês and the Cork Museum, which have remained closed since 2009, when their owner at the time, the Alicoop/Alisuper Group, entered insolvency.
“I am a businessman,” he said. “But sometimes in life you encounter something that makes business take second place. I know Silves very well, I’ve been coming here for 15 or 20 years. And every time I drove past the Fábrica do Inglês, my heart bled. I could not accept seeing everything shut and deteriorating.”
He began investigating the situation and discovered that the owners at the time, based outside the Algarve, showed little concern for the museum or the historic buildings.
“They had financing from a major bank in Lisbon. But the bank did nothing. The Government did nothing to save the Fábrica do Inglês. In Lisbon and Porto they think: this is just the Algarve, there is no culture there, it doesn’t matter. As the years went by, I became angrier and angrier. And when emotion comes in, business goes out. So I decided to step in. The first thing I wanted was to reopen the museum and return it to the community.”
The Dutch investor added that he intends to establish the headquarters of his companies in one of the factory buildings, alongside plans for “a beautiful hotel” and several apartments, though, he stresses, those developments will come later.
Despite admitting that his decision to purchase the complex was driven largely by emotion, De Vlieger insists he does not intend to lose money. “I don’t expect to make huge profits here, but I also don’t want to lose money. Someone simply had to do this. This purchase came from emotion, not reason.”
His first visit revealed buildings in a worrying state of repair. “Most were in a deplorable condition. The roofs leaked, the old doors and windows were rotting. Everything was in very poor shape. But when we entered the museum, surprisingly, the interior was very well preserved. I was genuinely astonished.”
As a result, his companies, Carvoeiro Branco and Antrix, decided to move ahead with reopening the museum, working alongside specialist professionals.
The project benefits from two significant partners: Silves Municipal Council and museologist Jorge Custódio, author of the museum’s original museological project, founder of several industrial museums and of the Portuguese Association of Industrial Archaeology, and widely regarded as one of Europe’s leading specialists in industrial archaeology.
It was the local authority itself that recommended Custódio’s involvement, revealed deputy mayor Maxime Bispo.
When journalists from Sul Informação visited the Fábrica do Inglês, Custódio was on site working with the municipality’s conservation specialist Elsa Lopes, who is coordinating the reopening on behalf of the new owners.
“Sixteen years have passed,” Custódio explained. “The good news is that there was very little vandalism here, unlike elsewhere in the complex.”
Inside the museum, almost everything remains in place and in reasonable condition, although three drilling machines have disappeared, an absence Custódio believes was brought to pass with malignant intent.
After more than a decade and a half of closure, large quantities of dust and debris had accumulated, all of which has now been cleared following weeks of work.
The next phase involves restoring organisational coherence to the museum. “To reopen, the museum must regain structure,” he said. “Criteria must be re-established, what is wrong must be corrected, and improvements introduced.”
If completed successfully, Custódio believes the museum could operate for another decade without the need for major refurbishment.
“Museum exhibitions are designed for long durations but rarely last more than fifteen years because the world changes,” he explained. “In this case, the museum was created with great sensitivity and persistence. It has not aged significantly. The equipment is sound, the machines remain in place. But after sixteen years closed, everything must now be set back on track. That is my role.”
He also emphasised the importance of educational programming so the museum becomes more than a static display. “There is enormous potential to work with the local population and with schools,” he said.
Despite the amount of work still required, Custódio is confident the reopening will indeed take place on 4th July.
“The later we reopen, the worse it becomes. The museum must reopen as a work in progress, functioning while improvements continue. Ideally everything would already be complete, but the essential museum already exists. It was unjustly closed, and reopening now allows progress to be made along the way.”
Relations with Silves Council, De Vlieger says, have been “very good”. “They support us enormously, not financially, everything is funded by our own resources, but because they want the museum reopened.”
Deputy mayor Maxime Bispo confirmed that the municipality has “the greatest interest” in seeing the Cork Museum reopen. Created in 1999 using machinery, artefacts and documentation from the historic factory, the museum became Portugal’s leading cork museum and won the Micheletti Award for Europe’s Best Industrial Museum in 2001.
Financial difficulties affecting the private group that created the complex forced its closure in 2009, where it has remained ever since.
Recently, however, progress has resumed. The museum’s movable collection has now been officially classified as property of municipal cultural interest, while a national heritage classification process is under way covering both buildings and integrated assets.
A municipal conservator is currently conducting a detailed assessment of the collection’s condition in preparation for future conservation measures.
For the council, Bispo said, collaboration with the new owner is essential.
Yet De Vlieger makes clear that the wider redevelopment must also be economically viable. His plan includes a 38-room boutique hotel and 12 townhouse units integrated into existing buildings.
The hotel will be operated by the Carvoeiro Branco/Antrix group, with negotiations under way with an international boutique hotel brand, whose name has not yet been disclosed.
In total, the entrepreneur expects to invest €25 million in the Fábrica do Inglês over five years, covering the museum reopening, hotel construction, residential units and full restoration of the complex.
Asked when additional construction might begin, De Vlieger responded with humour. “You know, the word bureaucracy must have been invented in Portugal. When God handed out bureaucracy, a Portuguese person was first in line. But that’s life, as people say here, é a vida.”
He hopes building work will begin in the first four months of next year. “The business vision is long-term, but now everything is moving. First we open the museum. Someone has to do it. It’s a shame it has to be a foreigner, although I am married to a Portuguese woman.”
Unlike previous owners, whose plans envisaged large-scale construction aimed at international investors and Golden Visa buyers, De Vlieger says his project will focus on adapting existing structures.
“They wanted a megalomaniac project, 12 or 13 thousand square metres aimed at wealthy foreign buyers. We will not do that. Yes, I want profit, I am a businessman, but not like that.”
The investor also used the interview to criticise what he describes as speculative development in the Algarve. “Many developers from Lisbon, Spain or the United States build luxury homes for foreigners and send the profits to Wall Street or Madrid. They take money from the Algarve and give nothing back. Meanwhile a Portuguese gardener earns €920 a month and cannot afford to live here.”
His message, he said, is directed at local mayors and Portugal’s housing authorities: developers should also be required to build affordable housing for Portuguese residents.
“I won’t be hypocritical, of course I want profit. We also build expensive developments. But we mix them with genuinely affordable homes between €180,000 and €280,000 that an ordinary Portuguese family can buy.”
After years of legal disputes, ownership changes and failed redevelopment attempts, the museum buildings and collection are finally back under unified ownership following the 2025 acquisition by De Vlieger’s companies.
The Fábrica do Inglês itself dates back to 1893 and passed through several Portuguese and British owners before ceasing industrial operations in 1995. The themed leisure complex and museum opened in 1999 but closed a decade later amidst corporate collapse.
Now, after nearly two decades of abandonment, local authorities believe the long and troubled story may finally be approaching a positive conclusion.
“There has been work from all sides,” said deputy mayor Maxime Bispo. “The Municipality has always been active in seeking solutions, not only to return the Cork Museum to the people of Silves, but to ensure that both residents and visitors can once again enjoy this important heritage.” He expressed “full confidence” that the Cork Museum will reopen, as it deserves.
Source: Elisabete Rodrigues, of Sul Informação
Photo Credit: Pedro Lemos
