10.- Flour Mill

In 1994, a hydraulic flour mill was built in the Museum, which houses the machinery of three different millstones. The water supply comes from the small stream that runs through the Museum grounds. To solve the shortage of water during the summer, a clever mechanism was used whereby an electric pump drives the flow of water from the aquifer found when excavating the foundations of the mill, generating a closed circuit that makes this mill move, contradicting the well-known saying “water that has passed through does not move the mill”.

The mill’s banzao (bucket), where the water that moves the impellers accumulates, comes from Villaperi (Oviedo/Uviéu) and dates back to 1869. It was dismantled stone by stone and rebuilt with the collaboration of the Confederación Hidrográfica del Norte. The milling machines were acquired in Valdoria (Siero), Nogueiróu (Grandas de Salime) and Colada (Ayande) and correspond to different models.