Career

He came from a humble family of potters and started developing his artistic style since a very young age. He was influenced both by the popular art of pottery as by more high level clay artists, like Joaquim Machado de Castro. He cultivated also religious art, making many Nativity Scenes.

In his last years, he asked to the Rotary Club of Mafra to help him create a José Franco Foundation and a School for Arts and Works.

One of his Nativity Scenes was offered to Pope John Paul II, who blessed lieutenant

Achievements

• The greatest accomplishment of José Franco was his "Aldeia Típica de José Franco" ("Typical Village of José Franco"), an open air museum that reccreates a village from the Mafra region at the first decades of the 20th century, in Sobreiro.