Mills in Alto Aragón - central eléctrica
Noales
Noales is a nucleus of
Montanúy in the Ribagorza region of Huesca province.
It is situated on the main road between
Castejón de Sos and Pont de Suert (N-260).
You may drop your vehicle at the branch of the main road were
Castanesa (7, and 8 km away) is signposted.
Walk the narrow road for 350m and you'll recognize the view of (1). From here you may work your way down to the mill.
However, it is probably more convenient to walk until you are about 600m away from your starting point and then walk down to the mill.
The mill is on the
Río Baliera a tributary of the
Río Noguera Ribagorzana.
Pictures: 17.x.2020
The building is in fairly good condition, but is, as far as we can tell, no longer in use.
Probably since the early 1960s when the mill was expropriated. It may have been earlier even, because the
construction, when it features on a map, is never shown with the symbol for a watermill. The only map
where it is drawn as a mill is the IGN map of 1931 (sheet 213).
The building looks like an ordinary house (2) that was properly locked up before being abandoned.
But the area just below the roof betrays the past of the construction. At the front (4) and on the two sides (3, 5) we see passages in the walls through which the wires were led out for connection to the electricity grid.
At the back of the building a pressure pipe (7) comes down
and enters the mill at a certain height (6) above the ground. In my opinion this must mean the presence of a rather large turbine inside.
High up on the slope runs a canal in good shape (9) that is probably still used for irrigation.
The inlet to the pressure tube is very wide (8, 11), and protected by a metal grille.
Behind this grille (11) there is kind of a small buffer
volume, covered with a roof, and at the other end of this volume there is a second grille to protect the inlet of the pressure pipe.
