Vista Alegre is a luxury Portuguese porcelain manufacturer located in Ílhavo in the district of Aveiro, Portugal.[1]
By May 2001, Grupo Vista Alegre joined with the Atlantis group and created the largest national tableware Group and the sixth in the world in this speciality: the Grupo Vista Alegre Atlantis. Fabrica de Porcelana Vista Alegre, with its historical background and tradition is the most representative industrial unit of the eleven ones of the Group, producing around 10 million pieces a year, in decorative and domestic porcelain. In 2002 it finished an industrial re-engineering process to increase both its capacity and production volume. An integration project was also under way for the two porcelain production centres of the Group, (FPVA and Chousa Nova).
History
Influenced by the success of the Marinha Grande glass factory, Pinto Basto decided to create a “porcelain, glass and chemical processes” factory. He started, in 1815, by acquiring the mansion Quinta da Ermida, a beautiful place near Ílhavo town and by the Aveiro estuary, in a region rich in the essential manufacturing elements of porcelain and glass, such as fuels, clay, white and thin sands and crystallized pebbles. Later on he also bought the surrounding 100 acre (0.4 km2) premises, where he launched his project. The patent authorising the operation of the Vista Alegre Factory was granted in 1824 by King D. João VI, benefiting of “all graces, privileges and exceptions enjoyed, or to be enjoyed in the future, by the National Factories”. The, just five years later, Vista Alegre was granted the title of Royal Factory, to honor its art and industrial success.