Museu da Indústria Baleeira

On the north coast of Pico Island, between the marinas of Madalena and São Roque do Pico, the buildings of an old whale factory stand open to visitors. The Museu da Indústria Baleeira keeps the machinery of the largest sperm-whale processing complex in the Azores, worked from 1946 to 1984.

The factory of the sperm whale

Whales caught off Pico were towed here to be rendered: the boilers, ovens and presses turned carcasses into oil, flour, fertilizers and other products, and the complex became the island’s great industrial workplace. When whaling ended, the plant closed — and was later preserved almost as it stood, one of the few industrial monuments of its kind in the Atlantic islands.

A monument to the men

The museum presents the factory as a monument to the men and women who worked it, with the machines in place and the story told from the processing floor rather than the hunt itself — the whalers’ boats and crews of the island are kept at the museum of Lajes, at the other end of the island. Together the two museums cover the whole cycle of an industry that shaped Pico for four decades.

What to see

• The boilers, ovens and presses of the factory
• The processing halls kept in working order
• The story of the 1946-1984 operation
• The coast road between Madalena and São Roque
• The vineyard landscape of the island around it

Practical information

The museum stands on the coast of São Roque do Pico, on the road that runs along the north shore of the island. Visits are guided and depend on the seasonal schedule — check official information before travelling, and bring a layer for the cool halls.

Image credit: Museu da Indústria Baleeira by Vitor Oliveira — CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.