Buera

Buera is situated not far from Alquézar. From Barbastro take the road that longs the Río Vero and passes through Castillazuelo, Pozán and Huerta de Vero. At some point Buera is signposted to the right. Drop your vehicle at the designated spot at the entrance of the village. From there it is only a short walk to the Torno which is signposted. The mill is restored and a museum now. Visits are guided, most interesting, and include a tasting of some kinds of olive oil.

Pictures: 26.ii.2012, 2.x.2016

Los Corrales

Buera village

(1) Torno de Buera - entrance

The main exhibition shows the situation in the first half of the 20th century. First a stationary Motor Vellino Type CZ (6) was installed and somewhat later, in 1927 †, a hydraulic press (5) with its pump (4), and a batidora (3) .

Before that time the miller had to work with a huge prensa de viga y quintal, a cantilever press. It was a slow process requiring several hard working people and with the risk of a fracture of the beams always present. The original press did not survive, but a life size replica has been built and is on display. This type was also used in e.g. Aguinalíu, Castarlenas.

(2) Exhibition of the main tools: torno, water pump, mixer, hydraulic press (r -> l)

(3) Batidora (mixer)

(4) Bomba (hydraulic pump)

There was a diesel engine and later on an electrical one so the work in the mill could be mechanised. Belt and cog wheels drove the hidraulic pump and the roller stone (2) and a batidora, a mixer, was introduced.

A batidora (3) is a device which stirs the mash of olives and heats it up to the right temperature for further processing. It means a considerable reduction of work for the miller.

An endless screw gobbles up the output of the mill (3r) and lifts the paste up to the top of the contraption. The mash is heated and homogenized and then released at the bottom (3l) where it waits, ready to be scooped between the capachos, or esteras, which are double layered discs originally woven from the grass Stipa tenacissima but are nowadays made from synthetic fibers.

(5) Prensa hidráulica (hydraulic press)

(6) Motor Vellino Tipo CZ — cooling system removed

The esteras are stacked into a vagoneta (notice the wheels) which was then pushed into the press (5). The head of the press carries a tag Talleres de Baró in Tortosa a company founded in 1886 by Francisco Baró Ginestar. The Baró company invented several tricks to improve the yield of its tools. Other Baró installations can be seen in Angüés, Castillazuelo, and in Benabarre, inter alia.

Motores Vellino was once a very popular brand of stationary engine. We have seen other types of Vellino in Palo and Banastón where I give a short history of the brand.

(7) Text on the body of the batidora

(8) Pressure gauge of the pump

A closer look revealed that apart from the press more of the equipment is connected with the name Baró.

The brand name of the mixer (3) is faintly visible in traces of yellow paint on its side. Its label (7) says:
Talleres – Viuda de Francisco Baró – Tortosa.

The hydraulic pump (4) is not labeled, but is equipped with a pressure gauge (8) which carries the name Francisco Baró.

Viuda de Francisco Baró is a company which came only in business at the end of the 1940s. Therefore, the batidora on show cannot have been part of the original modernization in 1927.

Los Corrales

Buera village

† Lucia Carruessco Buetas, Estela Puyuelo Ortiz (coord.) — 2012 — Buera — Ayuntamiento de Santa María de Dulcis; 190 pags.