1730
The construction of the Palace-Convent led to the concentration of Mafra of a large number of workers village (bricklayers, stonemasons, masons, carpenters, blacksmiths, among others) in the village, and came from all over the country. Ascending to about 45,000 workers who in 1731 had decreased to 15470 workers in the Royal Construction, among 6124 soldiers were soldiers, settled mostly to the northeast, where several vast wooden barracks were built in northern Portugal for workshops and lodging, where a true settlement was born that became known as Madeira Island (also due to the large pile of wood that was destined for construction and was kept there). On this island were sheds for the stables, mason houses for accommodation of specialized personnel and officers, and a wooden chapel for divine rites. In the housing grounds, numerous pasture houses were opened for the service of the workers, who fed at the expense of their salary, coming from the pine forests of Leiria and the boaundaries of Lisbon and Torres Vedras the wood, which was used for domestic consumption.
Image – Construction of the Convent of Mafra (Roque Gameiro, 1917)