RENOVATION of windmill, water reservoir, and agricultural building

Project: Renovation of windmill, water reservoir, and agricultural building

Municipality: Palma

Type of land: Rustic

State: Built and in operation

Year: 2020

Surface area: 404,92 m²

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Subsidies for the restoration of the water extraction windmills of the Pla de Sant Jordi de Palma, multiannual 2017-2019, published in the BOIB (Official Gazette of the Balearic Islands) number 125 of October 2017.

1st Prize Ex Aequo at the Toni Cobos Traditional Architecture Awards, granted by GRETA in the category of Group for the Recovery and Study of Architectural Tradition.

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The windmill of “Cal Tio de Son Pelat” is a water-extraction windmill from the Pla de Sant Jordi; a constantly changing landscape, a territory that has gone from being predominantly agricultural to becoming a peri-urban area of the city of Palma. These windmills were used to irrigate the crops around their tower, the water reservoir, and the agricultural constructions necessary for farming. Together, they formed a first-rate ethnological ensemble and, along with “ses cases”, an example of traditional architecture from the island of Mallorca.

This system of windmills and irrigation channels, used to transport water for irrigation, is visible in the landscape. It originates from the drainage of the Pla de Sant Jordi (Paul Bouvij, 1850) and has survived to the present day, although severely deteriorated due to the rise of tourism in the island’s productive sector which, along with urban speculation, is gradually destroying the agricultural and livestock heritage surrounding the city of Palma.

The agricultural park of 1959 (Rosselló Verger) extended over 6.000 hectares (vegetable crops, dryland trees, irrigated crops, and dairy production). Today, only about 4.000 hectares remain, mainly dedicated to cereals and alfalfa for livestock.

There were once around 1.400 functioning windmills, but this entire agricultural past is gradually being lost. In this project, subsidized by the Consell de Mallorca, it has been possible to recover the essence of the past and the agricultural and heritage potential, as there is still a farmer who cultivates these lands and uses the reservoir every day to irrigate his crops.