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The pottery factory of the Aulencia

Valdemorillo, Cuenca del Guadarrama, Madrid

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 1 Activities · 1 Historical milestones

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The pottery factory of the Aulencia

Historical milestone · Valdemorillo, Cuenca del Guadarrama, Madrid

Image of Valdemorillo, not of the place itself.

The outcrops of kaolin clay beside the Aulencia river attracted the alcoreño businessman Juan Falcó, who in 1845 set up the Sociedad de Aulencia, Falcó y Cía., a fine earthenware factory conceived as an alternative to English ware. It came to employ some two hundred people in a village of barely one thousand seven hundred inhabitants. It produced tableware printed with hunting scenes and landscapes and, from 1880, a geometric decorative series; the Palacio Real still holds pieces made for Alfonso XIII. From 1893 it expanded its catalogue to pharmacy containers, mortars and electrical components. Falcó closed the factory in 1914, and the complex fell into ruin after 1936, of which only three porcelain kilns and the medieval tower that served as a water tank survived.

1845-1914

Photo: Juan Carlos Ruiz Miranda (CC BY 3.0)

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