As The Miller Told His Tale: Restoration of mills in Mallorca

The transformation of Mallorca during Franco's time, and since, has been one of contradictions. The greatest change occurred in the '60s with the onset of mass tourism. It was one that set in motion a shift, a fundamental shift, away from what was almost exclusively an agrarian economy, one that had served Franco well; the farmers' co-operatives, such as those in Muro and Sa Pobla, formed part of the syndicates of self-sufficiency that was the economic model Franco preferred but which, by the mid to late-50s, was being shown to be unsustainable and unrealistic.

Tourism, and therefore increased urbanisation, meant a move away from the land. With this came the basis for the wealth that has made Mallorca what it is. At the same time as the foundations of tourism were being laid, the island was also subject to certain proscriptions, e.g. the practice of the Catalan language and culture and some fiestas.

Despite Franco's desire for self-sufficiency, it was he - and his regime - who altered Mallorca for good and pushed it towards a more outward-looking perspective. This was the greatest contradiction of them all. But the process of modernisation that continued after his death, the movement towards greater cosmopolitanism and internationalism, has brought with it a further contradiction in terms of retrenchment and a re-invigoration of what, prior to Franco, was the Mallorcan orthodoxy - of Catalan, fiestas and also agrarianism.

The latter of these might be the hardest to comprehend. The socio-political nature of the language and cultural as well as the fiestas are clear expressions of a rediscovery of what had been undermined for many years. A return to the traditions of the land are less easy to understand. Yet this does represent the latest of contradictions within Mallorcan society; a desire to have the wealth of tourism while also clinging to a nostalgic past. It is understandable in a way. Any society that undergoes an upheaval as great as Mallorca has over the past 40 years will find solace in some continuity with the past, especially a past that had been partially banned or, in the case of agrarianism, partially abandoned in the pursuit of economic growth and a wholly different economic model.

This isn't so much a return to farming - which has never gone away of course - but to traditional machinery and operations of a rural past. The restoration of a variety of mills - for flour, water, olives etc. - is advancing at a phenomenal pace. There are over 600 flour mills, over 400 olive mills and over 2,000 windmills for extracting water. Of these, the greatest number of olive mills are to be found in Pollensa.

Many of these mills had fallen into a bad state of disrepair, but rather than demolish them there has been an ongoing programme, under the auspices of the rural department of the environment ministry at the Council of Mallorca, to bring them back to life. The style of some of these mills reflect an island landscape of stonework akin to the dry-stone walls in the countryside, while they are indicative of a pre-industrial Mallorca, i.e. one before tourism. Certain mills even operate by means of horse power.

These mills do not necessarily offer anything highly productive. What they do offer are sympathetic adornments to the landscape and an educative element - how life once was and how rural machinery used to operate. They also offer an attraction; one to the tourist. Some Mallorcans might actually hanker after a return to the old ways. But in bringing back to life those old ways, they - the Mallorcans - are also in the process of looking to add greater sustainability to the industry that all but destroyed those ways - to mass tourism. Another contradiction.


QUIZ:
Yesterday: Saint Etienne, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UZyfEl4fF4. Today: "as the miller told his tale" - hardly needs any clue, does it?


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.