The old hidroelectric plant, planned in 1912 and concluded in 1914 (corresponding to the inauguration of electric power), has been transformed in Santa Rita’s Hidroelectric Museum and it is now a nucleus of the Emigration Museum.

Four kilometres away from Fafe, it used the waters of River Vizela. The harness of the water is made through a charge chamber from where a 22-metre long forced pipe drives the water to the plant. The height of fall is about 15 metres.

Mayor José Summavielle Soares (Fafe´s Member of Parliament), Miguel Augusto Gonçalves Ferreira and the mayor’s assistants called João Leite da Silva and José Fernandes Ribeiro took part in the creation of the old plant.

The plant was installed by the Portuguese Company of Electricity, a representative of Schuckert & Cy, from Nuremberg; it was a pioneer firm in installing hidroelectric plants in Portugal and responsible for the installation of plants in Bugio’s Cloth and Spinning Factory and Fafe’s Cloth and Spinning Factory (1924).

The equipment is composed of the lock, the channel and the plant building where you can find the turbin.The single-floor plant building is also the machines room (8x15m).

In this room you can find the control and manual manoeuvre system composed of a marble slab cut in in three parts where the ammetres are installed.

In the plant, there is a generator group composed of a turbin and a generator/alternator with the following characteristics:

Turbin: Made by JM Voith in 1914

            Type: Francis (reaction)

            Power: 60 HP

Generator/Alternator: Made by Siemens in 1914

Power: 55.5KVA

Tension: 5000V

Frequence: 50HZ

RPM: 750