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Wooden Door Locks – Corvo

Even today, very few are the houses whose doors are locked and, ironically, this is the home of one of the most unique pieces of the Azorean handicrafts, wooden door locks from Corvo. Most likely is the last stronghold of a medieval time when raw materials were scarce, but abundant was the ingenuity and the need to preserve the property in time of corsairs and pirate assaults. You can still observe in some doors, typical locks and respective keys made of wood, especially in the shelters of agricultural labor, scattered by the various arable fields on the island.

By keeping alive the wooden door locks from Corvo, also remains awaken the cultural and social identity of a people. It was the objective of another partnership between the Regional Centre for Handicrafts and the Association for Local Development, Adeliaçor, in conducting a training action in 2007, where José Mendonça Inês, born in the island of Corvo and a carpenter by trade taught the secret of making these handmade pieces that he guards for more than thirty years and was registered in a brochure illustrated with some images and technical designs concerning the utensils used, the techniques and stages of implementation, and can be interpreted by the public as a practical manual.