WINDMILLS IN MAJORCA
It's hard to imagine the Spanish countryside, and not picture its windmills. These romantic structures with their conical roofs and canvas sails have been cultural icons ever since Miguel de Cervantes immortalized them in his epic novel, Don Quixote de La Mancha.
But while Don Quixote looked upon windmills and saw giants, Don Bernardo Rabasa sees them as a vanishing national treasure. Windmills Video 1
Rabasa is president of The Friends of the Windmills Association, an activist group dedicated to the restoration and preservation of antique windmills on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca, 150 miles off the Spainsh mainland. Rabasa says that so far his group has identified and catalogued the remains of close to 900 molinos, or windmills, which were placed on the World Monuments Fund list of endangered sites a year ago.
A $50,000 grant from the World Monuments Fund, says Rabasa, will be used to restore a prominent windmill overlooking the Bay of Palma, Mallorca's capital city. Another dream is to open a museum in one of the restored flour mills dedicated to the history of Mallorca's windmills. For that to happen, says Rabasa, the group will have to raise at least another $350,000. Yet should they succeed, many feel that the new breed of cultural tourists, those interested in more than Mallorca's famous sand and surf, could provide continued support. Windmills Video 2
MOLINOS DE VIENTO EN MALLORCA
En Mallorca, desde antes de la conquista cristiana (1229) ya se conocían
los ingenios movidos por las fuerzas tradicionales. Los molinos de viento,
los de sangre y los hidráulicos se pueden encontrar en cualquier
parte del territorio insular. Hoy por hoy han perdido su función
inicial, no obstante gozan de un importante valor patrimonial como testimonio
del pasado económico, social y cultural de Mallorca. Video de Molinos de Viento 3
Paseando por cualquier pueblo de Mallorca se puede disfrutar de la vista
de uno de estos molinos, que siembran nuestro paisaje y le dan ese toque
característico
Map of Interesting Places in Palma de Mallorca - other maps in here
