Milling heritage
Windmills can be found on all four Balearic islands. On Mallorca and Ibiza, they're stocky and have short wings, while those on Menorca and Formentera have long wings and are quite sophisticated. This is because these mills have different functions. The first mills built on the islands date back to the 13th century, at the time of the Catalan conquest, and were used to grind grain into flour, and were probably set in motion by animal power. Later, they were used to extract water from the water table by pumping (this type of mill is found in large numbers on Mallorca). It's important to point out here that a mill's motive power can be of three types, or even four if we include the much more modern electric power. The oldest mills were called molinos de sangre (blood mills) because the millstones that crushed the grain were powered by animal traction. Molinos de viento (windmills), with their wide wings and found in large numbers on the island of Menorca, were powered by the wind alone. Molinos de agua (water mills), installed on the banks of a river, were set in motion by the action of water. Finally, molinos de fuego (fire mills) are the descendants of this mill genealogy, and are powered by electricity.
Moulin des Gymésies. Although Mallorca is the island with the most modern mills (from the 18th century onwards) - of the 4,000 or so it once had, three quarters of which were used to pump water and were characterized by their "arrow" shape, between 2,000 and 2,500 have survived (650 of them in the Pla Sant Jordi area alone) - it was in Menorca that these tall cylindrical towers, 7 to 8 meters high and harnessing the power of the wind, first appeared. There are several possible explanations for the original origin of this technology. One suggests that it was introduced by the Dutch engineer Paul Bouvy, who in the 18th century adapted the windmill system of his native country to the Mediterranean plains of Pla de Sant Jordi, Mallorca. Another view attributes the arrival of windmills in the Balearic Islands to the Persians, who in fact historically originated in Afghanistan around 620 AD and began to flourish throughout Europe as early as the 12th century. In any case, mills multiplied on Menorca in the 18th century, becoming central to agricultural life. Of the many Minorcan mills built over the centuries, only around thirty have survived the ravages of time. One of them, the Molí de Dalt, is emblematic of the island and was built at the same time as the town that houses it, Sant Lluis, around 1760, at the time of the French invasion. Its structure has survived the centuries so well (its original facade has recently been restored) that it has been chosen as the home of the Ethnological Museum, which exhibits farming implements from the era, and from which visitors can embark on a thematic tour of the island's mills. For example, you can visit the well-preserved Molí des Comte de Ciutadella, built in 1778 to grind wheat into flour.
Les Pityuses mills. In the Pityuses (Ibiza and Formentera), although some mills were used to grind cereals and legumes into products for human and animal consumption, the most representative buildings in the rural heritage are certainly the flour mills, mainly wind-powered (documents relating the existence of water-powered mills in the Pityuses are rare). The historical archives available to archaeologists point to the past existence of some sixty mills on both islands, although less than half of them are still standing today. In Ibiza, the Puig de Molins ("Windmill Mountain") area, which also contains a valuable Carthaginian necropolis, was probably home to several mills towards the end of the 13th century, some of which have survived to the present day. Just a stone's throw away is the Puig d'en Valls mill, which operated until 1940 and has now been restored, making it well worth a visit: it's the only mill on the island with its entire mechanism intact. The Es Porxet mill has also been restored and is receiving special attention from the Ibiza authorities. As far as Formentera is concerned, it would appear that the first mills appeared in the 18th century, at the same time as the island was being repopulated. In addition to the six flour mills still standing, the two towers built at the end of the 19th century to grind salt have also been preserved. The only mill open to visitors, the oldest on the island (1778) and the last to be in operation, is the beautifully restored Molí Vell de La Mola.
A difficult office
Anatomy of a Menorcan mill. Imposing cylindrical buildings, Menorca's flour mills were usually built from sandstone, which is abundant on the island. They were operated by a machinery consisting of gears of varying sizes, located at the top of the building and accessed via a spiral staircase. It's around the central mast (9 m high) that all the action takes place: wheels and belts are linked to it, and are driven by the movement of the 7 to 8-metre antennae (or blades) crowning the exterior of the tower. By means of a set of small pulleys, the miller was able to control not only the speed of the mill, but also the elevator, a large wheel fitted with containers used to pick up the grain stored beneath the mill. The grain was finally ground between two powerful millstones, then packed into sacks. To take advantage of any weather conditions, the central mast was equipped with a lever to direct the mill blades in the direction of the wind. Before the grain could be ground, it first had to be harvested, and while harvesting and conditioning grain were summer activities, it was not uncommon for millers to have to work all year round, and sometimes at odd hours, during the most sumptuous harvests, as their office was totally dependent on the wind, which could blow at any time of the day or night. When the wind was favorable, they could grind 150 to 200 kilos of flour per hour. Conversely, with little wind, a full day's work was needed to obtain 50 kilos.
Inland sailors. Like sailors, mill workers depended entirely on the wind, and knew it well. The wind rose was their compass, enabling them to identify Menorca's eight winds: tramuntana, gregal, llevant, xaloc, migjorn, llebeig, ponent and mestral, names that fishermen, sailors and millers chanted like a mantra. To operate a mill, you had to know how to decipher climatic changes in advance, be able to anticipate rain and storms, feel the breeze turn so as to direct the mill's wings in the direction of the approaching wind. For example, it was not advisable to grind grain using the mestral or tramuntana winds, which produce powerful gusts capable of destroying mill blades. It was also in anticipation of days of strong winds that mills were equipped with two gates: oral and written histories tell of numerous accidents caused by the blades striking the miller's body as he left the mill. The second door enabled millers to escape from the building through the side where the blades were not turning. In many respects, then, handling a mill was comparable to that of a ship, and the very similar vocabulary of these two offices - antennae and sails, the name of knots - gave rise to a saying: "When you listen to millers, you'd think you were listening to sailors talking".
Abandonment (and rebirth?) of mills
The second half of the twentieth century, with the modernization of farming techniques based on a vast array of machines designed to reduce or even eliminate human effort, marked the end of the mill era. Those that continued to operate, for a time, were powered by electric motors - fire mills - rather than windmills. In addition, intensive farming rendered arable land infertile, and the competitiveness of imported products meant that farmers had no incentive to continue the hard work of sowing and harvesting. As a result, the mills of the Balearic Islands today are nothing more than witnesses to a bygone era, regarded with nostalgia by the older generation, while the younger ones see them as historic elements enthroned in their familiar landscape. Some have been converted into housing, others into restaurants, while some are used as cultural centers or museums, like the one in Sant Lluís (Menorca), which still functions as it did a century ago. The others are slowly falling into disuse.
In Mallorca, however, it seems that the authorities have plans for the Pla de Sant Jordi, which boasts some 650 protected mills, mills used to pump water from underground. In the 1990s, the construction of a wastewater treatment plant in the area, coupled with an agricultural crisis, prompted farmers and planters to abandon their crops, livestock and mills. It was with the aim of encouraging farmers to make the most of their land that the Mallorca Council decided in 2017 to subsidize the rehabilitation of the Pla Sant Jordi mills, returning them to their original function of extracting water. The Pla de Sant Jordi is indeed battered by the winds, and it happens to be in summer that they prove more regular. What's more, it's during the summer months that groundwater levels are at their highest, making water easier to extract, and it's precisely at this time that horticultural crops need water the most. But the authorities also wanted to restore the windmills to their former glory, using skilled craftsmen. Are Mallorca's 18 windmill wings on a roll? This initiative is not the first of its kind. To be continued..
