Our heritage
of our past and a part of our present.
The stones here speak, because they are a part
of our past and a part of our present.
Benissa
Els Molins del Collao
"In the Collao area, at an altitude of 300 metres above sea level so as to take advantage of the wind and the sea breeze, four windmills were built in 1850, of which only three have survived until this day, preserved to a greater or lesser extent.
The mills emerged as a fundamental tool for grinding wheat into flour, a product that during the middle of the 19th century began to be industrialised and to acquire importance, together with grapes and raisins. At the end of the century, the mills lost their function due to the appearance of other energy systems and the reduction in wheat production in the region.
The Collao mills have a circular plan and a slightly truncated conical tower. They have a thick one-metre stone wall which decreases slightly in width as it goes up, and they are 7.30 metres high with a diameter of 7 metres. The access door was on the ground floor, with an intermediate floor resting on wooden beams and an upper floor resting on a masonry vault. Access to the upper floors was via a ladder attached to the wall and located to the right of the door.
The ground floor was used as a warehouse, collecting the flour that descended from the upper floor through a duct. The intermediate floor served as the miller's room and the tool store. On the upper floor was where the mechanism was located, made of wood and iron, equipped with a stone for grinding. On this floor there were four windows facing the four winds. The mill was topped by a truncated conical roof with a wooden structure covered with vegetable fibres or wooden planks.
In 1968, a water tank was built in the Collao area, so as to accumulate the water coming from the Camí Sanet well in Benidoleig, of which Benissa’s Town Hall had acquired shares in order to supply water to the settlement.
Therefore, from 1969 onwards the Collao area received another function, passing from grinding wheat to supplying drinking water to the population of Benissa by achieving sufficient head pressure with its altitude.
There are three mills, but only two of them (the ones next to the water tank) belong to the municipality of Benissa, while the third one belongs to the municipality of Llíber.” (1)
(1) Ajuntament de Benissa: Servici d’aigües de Benissa. Els Molins del Collao de Benissa. Obtained from the following page: https://www.aiguesdebenissa.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=36&Itemid=36&lang=es
Benissa
Our heritage
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