Loarre

Loarre is famous for its romanesque castle on a rocky outcrop above the town. For the mill stay down between the houses and park your vehicle at the entrance of the village. Walk to the North through the Calle Mayor, then the Calle del Molino. At its most northern point walk still further North on the gravel road and you will soon recognize the view of (1).

Pictures: 13.x.2020

(1) The mill hidden between the high trees at left; on top of the rocks: the castle of Loarre.

(2) Section north of the central porch.

This place is truly something very special. The building itself was securely locked, but from the outside it was clear that the property is now in use for some form of recreation. There were arrows pointing to a bar, there were several sitting areas and the whole thing was buried under all sorts of knickknacks. Some were reminiscent of the mill business of yesteryear (7, 10, 11).

We couldn't find anyone in the area who could let us in, but luckily there was a window through which we could look inside (8, 9). There we saw industrial equipment of French origin that would be more suited to a factory than to a simple village mill. This mill must have had some importance.

It was not possible to look inside the space above the cárcavo.

(3) Section south of the central porch.

(4) Entrance with porch

(5) Section south of the entrance with cárcavo.

(6) Cárcavo.

(7) Table made from decommissioned stone.

(8) Industrial equipment.

(9) French equipment (notice Fermé).

The mill is listed in the Sistema de Información del Patrimonio Cultural Aragonés (sipca.es) and there we find that the workspace above the cárcavo would still contain a rather well preserved grinding installation: one pair of stones, a stone case, a feeder hopper, a crane. In my opinion, the other equipment (8) seems a bit over the top compared with the grinding capacity of one pair of stones.

Sipca does not mention equipment to produce electricity. However, this mill once did and on old maps (Instituto Geográfico Nacional, map MTN50-0247 of 1930) a power line is drawn between the mill and the village.