Fiscal

Fiscal is situated near Ordesa National Park. Find Fiscal on the main road between L'Ainsa and Broto – Torla. Cross the river towards the village centre. You'll find the mill next to the village side of the bridge. The open air museum for the batán of Lacort lies opposite. The mill takes water from the Río Ara.

When we first visited the mill locks and bars kept people out but rain and wind had free reign through the broken windows. Since then maintenance and improvements have been carried out and the mill is now open as a tourist information center during the summer months.

Pictures: 26.xii.2001, 22.viii.2006

waterworks

entrance floor

basement

Mill in August 2006

(2) The basement in 2001

The turbine and power generator are found in the basement. A blind arch at the base of the front wall below the window in the middle shows where the channel enters the mill.

In 2001 we couldn't enter the mill, but there was an opening big enough for our lens and we were able to take an overview of the old generator room (2). A lot has changed since then but the corner with the engines was left undisturbed - except for some wiring.

(3)

The generator is now turned out of the way (bottom left of pict. 3).
It was not possible to decipher any of the tags, but given the size its wattage must have been limited (see also Centenera).
A household had only two (three at the most) lightbulbs. One was located in the kitchen annex animal-shed and the other in the drawingroom annex dormitories. The light of the first bulb was dimmed when the other lamp was switched on! (Read also Baselga Abril, p358.)

The turbine is hidden in the wall at the right (3). The name of (one of) the most important companies in the history of Aragón's mills Averly S.A. Zaragoza is embossed in the front plate. Averly was founded in 1855 by a French civil engineer from Lyon and is still in business (website www.averly.es, in Spanish; latest check 05.i.2024).

(4)

(5) Averly S.A. Zaragoza

Find a picture of the mill of Fiscal dated 1912 in:
Franceses en Sobrarbe - un turismo diferente
Centro de Estudios de Sobrarbe - 2006
Dep. legal Z-2755-06

This brochure accompanies an exhibition of the pictures of Jean Bepmale, a French politician. About 13 000 pictures which he made in the 1910s were recently discovered; more than 700 were made in Huesca province.