Labor Omnia Vincit
That's the text on an old factory wall in nearby Santa Comba Dão. I suppose it would translate from latin as "Work conquers all".
The building happens to be across the road from the birthplace of António de Oliveira Salazar, who led the authoritarian regime here from 1933 to 1974. I have no idea if there is a connection -- but I'd guess that people in his home area were broadly supportive of the dictator and showed it in this and other ways.
The old dictator still stirs up passions around here. A few months back we heard there'd been quite a confrontation between a group who are pursuing plans to set up a museum to Salazar and others totally opposed to the idea of celebrating his life. Of course, there are always two sides (at least) to a story... It seems pretty clear to me that, for most people, Salazar was a nasty piece of work. At worst he used the usual violent techniques of authoritarian regimes to keep down dissent. At best, he was a Mao-like figure who kept the peasantry in glorious poverty while enriching close comrades. But a quote from a 1958 travel guide to Portugal (by one Iris Merle) is interesting: "It is now almost a quarter of a century since the quiet but brilliant economist, Dr. Oliveira Salazar, a professor at Coimbra University, was called to put Portugal in order and on her feet again. While remaining always the quiet, austere-living professor, Dr. Salazar has achieved the almost impossible task which his country set him and ahas already become somewhat of a legend." People I've met who lived through the revolution in 1974 (26 years after this quote was written) would not put his achievements into the same words...
Most remarkable to me is that the coat of arms and text still remain. I wonder how much longer it will stay? The factory, whatever it produces, still seems to be operating but in these days of EU membership I'd say its days are numbered...
In a similar vein is the following picture. It's the entrance to the Communist Party offices in Aveiro, a coastal town north of here on the way to Porto. The wonderful tile work is typically Portuguese (and called azulejo). The depiction of a labourer hard at work digging a hole (at the top of the stairs) seems to owe more to the Soviet Union.
Most towns of any size in Portugal seem to have a prominent Communist Party office. Posters are also quite common ("Health is for All" and the like...). It's good to see really; I don't know if it's a sign of real political debate but certainly it must be causing the major parties to think a bit.