February 12, 2011

MILL IN SA PUNTA DES MOLI

MILL IN SA PUNTA
It is believed that the Arabs were who introduced windmills and water wheels and other those days mechanics systemshere on the island. As a child I visited Formentera on a day where I saw that there was something in Ibiza had passed into history, were the mills with blades. Many years after, probably at the initiative of a political culture, became the restoring of few remained standing mills. As a curiosity always amazed me that Ibiza and Formentera´s mills had six blades, two more than those showing in the books from La Mancha (Castille), where Don Quixote attacked those giants. Also those nice ones on pictures surrounded by tulips. The famous Dutch windmills.
The beauty of Ibiza ones had a more primitive, but rough looking. The Ibiza and Formentera mills are similar but not identical to the rest of the Balearic Islands, although in Menorca and Majorca are very similar to each other and have a home below the mill itself.
To talk about these mills in Ibiza, we must refer to the Puig des Molins in Ibiza Town. There are most mills (although only one restored with the blades), there is also one in Puig den Valls, near the city, Puig means mountain and was above the mountains where the wind blew over. But today the mill I propose is the one located in Sa Punta in Sant Antoni de Portmany that unlike the previous ones is located at the coast at the edge of the sea, and when the west wind blows I guess I was rolling and rolling. When was made nothing was around but today is blended into a tourist coast full of hotels and tourist attractions.
They were used to grind wheat and then make a good bread, very important in the island long ago. It seems that some mills in the island date from the thirteenth century and therefore I consider it an asset to be protected ...

1 comment:

  1. You can find also a beatiful windmill in Mercadal (Menorca). It is a great chance to discover such a beautiful island!

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