The origins of São João da Madeira extend back to the consecutive settlements by Celt, Roman, Moors and Visigoths.

It would eventually become one of the major symbols of São João da Madeira's new economy, the Empresa Industrial de Chapelaria Lda.

Oliveira Júnior was recognized by the national government, who issued him a diploma of Industrial and Agricultural Merit, its citizens later honouring him with a bust and the naming of one of its roads.

Its independence was recorded in the local newspaper O Regional as born "of a group of young people with blood that boiled in their veins and anxious for the constant progress of São João da Madeira".

At that time, the Portuguese government considered São João da Madeira one of the most important regional industrial centres with its progress suffocated by its inferior status.

The municipality of São João da Madeira is situated in the extreme north of the district of Aveiro, in the historical region of Beira Litoral, occupying a position central in the subregion of Entre Douro e Vouga.

São João da Madeira's motto, translated as "Labor, City of Work", appeals to its industrial history.

Inaugurated in 2008 by President Aníbal Cavaco Silva the centre is a modern project by architect Filipe Oliveira Dias, that services as an incubator for high technology businesses in order to diversify the local market.

It is actually the first of ten buildings in the zone, of a planned 80,000 square metre technological park, including the Núcleo de Investigação e Desenvolvimento (Investigation and Development Nucleus).

The quality of São João da Madeira's head apparel has, at one time, been recognized internationally, and incorporated in fashion house (such as Hermès).

Its central place within the urban hierarchy has slowly consolidated many of the main services of the Entre Douro e Vouga subregion; along with Santa Maria da Feira it has contributed to the policentralizism of Greater Porto basin.