King Manuel II of Portugal inaugurated the Caminho de Ferro do Vale do Vouga (Vouga Valley Railline) which, along with the construction of new streets and roads allowed the parallel growth of the region. With the construction of the local hospital, the introduction of electricity into the region was finally concluded, while at the same time the cultural arena was enhanced with the establishment of the Grupo Patriótico Sanjoanense a philharmonic band and cultural centre (led by the Jesuit priest and histographer Serafim Leite). It was not until 11 October 1926 that the region achieved both economic and political autonomy as a full municipality, a fact that was seen by locals as enviable due to its inferior status administratively (until then it was a civil parish of the neighbouring municipality of Oliveira de Azeméis). 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. São João da Madeira became a city at 28 June 1984, by the law n.º 13/84. By the second World War, the felt industry grew in Portugal, and during the 1940s the production of fur and felt production was centralized in the factories of the municipality, with the establishment of the Cortadoria Nacional do Pêlo, which was nationalized in 1945. In 1946, 1775 people worked in the hat-making industrial in Portugal, while 1212 were located in São João da Madeira. The activity of this industry was later immortalized by João da Silva Correia, in his romance "Unhas Negras", a pejorative reference to the works who worked the open cauldrons that darken and destroyed their fingernails (unhas negras literally means "darken/blacken fingernails"). The term was later generally used to identify the citizenry of the municipality. The use of the word "Labor", on the coat-of-arms of the municipality, was intended to signify the importance of these workers in the development of the region. Regardless, the hat-making industries slowly declined in the following decades, with the decline in the use of hats, and the shoe-making industry grew in importance, resulting in its reference as the "Capital of Footwear" in Portugal (). Geography The municipality of São