Mill
	of the
	Hollows
		Ramada

In skill of historical introduction

Man was still starting the first steps on Land, in the long and distant Palaeolithic period, chipping rocks for knives, axes and tips of arrows, neverthless, with the aid of some rudimentary devices, already triturated and milled roots, fruits and wild grains that were used in the feeding to satisfy man's most pressing necessities. To get the flour he triturated the grains with two smooth rocks, a greater and fixed one (the landing) and another, lesser and mobile (the millstone). One was in the prehistory of agriculture but it had been the process used in Egypt and other civilizations many thousands of years before.

When our remote grandparents started to sow grains, that is, when they discovered agriculture, thus initiating the first economical revolution of the human history, they developed a vast joint of utensils that, much later, would give origin to mills.

First there had been the mortars, the pestle, the metate, the grindstone, the rotating millstone, and many others. Later, with the invention of the hydraulic wheel, the force of the waterfalls was underbowed to set in motion mills and water-mills, thus activating the milling. But, perceiving the work potential of the wind and denoting a rational exploitation of nature as a motor force for an harmonious development (which today unhappily seems a notion dislocated of reality), man also appealed to the aeolian force, thus building the first wind mills.

In Portugal, the first document that refers to a wind mill is dated 1303.

The mills, invincible giants that had populated the children's and adults' imaginary of long ago, had been a striking element both in the landscape of Europe during the Average Age, and in the region of Castille-La Mancha, which Cervantes, the writer, eternalized through D. Quixote, in one of the most beautiful works of Spanish literature.

In 1941 the council of Loures had 32 windmills officially registered (beyond other 27 water-mills), being the greatest cereal transformers of the rural area they were integrated in. But, with the time passing, these artisan machines, which during the centuries had served of sustenance for many families, entered in decay as they were faced in direct confrontation with the new technologies introduced in the miller industry. Therefore the miller profession gradually became economically non attractive for lack of income-producing.

The immediate consequence of this situation was the abandonment of mills, here and there. A long period of apathy followed then, being the mills left to their luck and to the course of time which ended up knocking down the weak resistances of the majority, destroying them completely.

In Portugal, for many years, the situation of this traditional milling system was tragic. At present, most of the mills which still resist are voted to forgetfulness. Happily, though, one can see, north to south, some windmills in full labour, and many others have been recovered for tourist, cultural, recreational, hostelling or even housing purposes. The situation seems to bring days of a transforming glory.

In this sense the council of Loures has began to undertake a work of exemplary recovery and is safeguarding the "Moinho das Covas" (Mill of the Hollows), in Ramada, which, as others in the council of Loures, serves as a social and economic certification of the recent past of our landscape.

Master Tim�teo Martins

Building the mechanism of a mill is an art considered so difficult that, at present, in all the district of Lisbon, there are only two men who know how to recover windmills. Jos� Tim�teo Martins, responsible for the reconstruction of the "Moinho das Covas" (Mill of the Hollows), is one of them.

For those who do not dominate the skill of the reconstruction of a mill it seems an easy task, however, it is not so, as "each case has its own measure", says master Tim�teo, a Mafra native.

The craftsman, who learned the art at the age of 15 with his father, a mill "engineer", was equally responsible for the reconstruction of the "Moinho da Apela��o" (mill of the Appeal) in the council of Loures.

"At the beginning everything was in ruins, walls with holes and grass", but this didn't reduce master Tim�teo to despair, as for him "it seemed very difficult but wasn't hard to achieve. It is similar to learning how to read or making a reckon".

"There are no books to teach us make parts of the mill. Everything's here, inside the idea", says the craftsman, pointing his head, and adding next: "I am the greater vain person of this workmanship".

He is 59 years old and, in Ramada, gave life to a device originally constructed almost 60 years before his own birth.

Gazing at the mill, in his heart grows a dream: to have a mill of his own.

Moinho das Covas (Mill of the Hollows)

The council of Loures was an one of the areas, in the rural zone, where the biggest transformation of cereals took place, being natural, therefore, that the landscape was offered a colourful tone by the significant number of mills there existing.

However, between the golden times of this traditional milling system and our days, decades have run and the mills of the council, and of the Country, in general, have fastly started a process of extinction.

The fast alterations constantly introduced by the invasion of the urban areas over the agricultural ones, and the consequent transformation of the landscape, seem to have left irreversible marks in the daily life of these structures. However, worried not to leave this rich patrimony behind (once part of the routine of our ancestors), the City council of Loures set arms to work, and in strict co-operation with parish councils and other entities, it has undertaken, during the last years, a work of exemplary recovery.

The "Moinho das Covas" (Mill of the Hollows), in Ramada, together with other reconstructed mills in the council of Loures, is a representative witness of the recent past of our rural landscape.

The idea to recuperate the mill, where the creation of a didactic exhibition space was previously foreseen, dates back to some years ago. The project gained consistency and, on 25th April in 1996, with the money proceeding from the Council of Loures and of the Ramada parish council, the dream finally became a reality after nine months of recovery works. At the present time the management of the mill is led by the Secondary School of Ramada, which counts on the support of the parish council of Ramada and the Council of Loures, being expected the accomplishment of diverse exhibitions and guided tour visits for schools and population, under the condition that the visits are previously fixed.

Once it is inserted in the geographic space of a secondary educational establishment, the exploitation of the mill can also be of some service to the school community and the school syllabus.

Constructed in 1884, the "Moinho das Covas" (Mill of the Hollows) finally gained a new heart and was dressed in blue and white, being ready to commemorate, full of dignity, all special occasions, and being of service to youngsters and adults in order to perpetuate, in the present and in the future, the traditions and characteristics of the region of Loures.

In the space where the mill is erected, which presents the traces of the province of Estremadura, beyond the construction of the soil (of typical Portuguese stone-paved sidewalk) and of the creation of green spaces, there can be also seen a typical miller's house lodging a furnace which, in determined events, will cook rustic bread with the grains jammed in the mill.

But beyond all the exterior arrangements made in the mill, the original mechanical pieces were also recuperated, being now at full service and constituting, therefore, a unique chance for thousand of pupils and visitors to be acquainted with the process of traditional milling.

The "Moinho das Covas" (Mill of the Hollows) was, originally, a masonry built mill, moving the cap by means of an interior mechanical and rustic machine named, in portuguese, "sarilho".

In the interior, its gear is complete. To the white canvas, sumptuous in its simplicity, it remains no alternative but to dance to the sound of the music produced by the wind. The dance of the canvas moves the mast. The mechanism called "entrosga" (in portuguese) engages in the clutch and in the freight which, connected to the lode, moves the millstones. When the cereal is placed inside the "teig�o", it slides little by little to the "quelha" till it falls in the eye of the millstone. The millstone, on its turn, modifies the cereal it receives into flour.

As many others, this mill has got two floors and a store. Each of these floors have got a couple of millstones. The millstone of the upper floor is usually called, in portuguese, "alueiro" and was originally used to grind the wheat, whereas the millstone of the lower floor is designated, in portuguese, "urgeiro" and was destinated to the milling of the maize or other cereals. The store was used for the preservation and selling process of the flour. The mill is, therefore, a beautiful representative unit of the "wind giants", old friends of the rural and agricultural landscape where, long ago, they mastered the landscape of the surrounding mountains.

A visit to the "Moinho das Covas" (Mill of the Hollows) is, over all, a trip to the knowledge of the rural memories and cultural inheritance of the council of Loures.

History, here so close, recreating itself for all.