The mills and their presence in Formentera tell us what the population’s basic food product was: wheat, the cereal used to make bread. The mills we now enjoy sightseeing were necessary to grind the wheat into flour.<\/p>\n
They were called blood mills, since they used animals to drive the grinding wheel. The oldest ones to be small, near the house; later on, in the eighteenth century bigger mills that used wind to move the wheel were built; these mills also permitted greater production.<\/p>\n
There were seven windmills used to grind the grain, all with the same mechanism and the same type of construction built around a cylindrical tower, six blades and a conical roof, all divided into three floors: the upper one where the gears were located, the central one where the flour was obtained and the ground floor that was used as a warehouse.<\/p>\n
Today we can enjoy six of those seven mills, since the Mol\u00ed d’en Simon in Es Cap de Barbaria disappeared:<\/p>\n
In La Mola we find the Mol\u00ed Vell and the Mol\u00ed d’en Botigues, near Sant Ferran we can see the Mol\u00ed d’en Teuet and the Mol\u00ed de ses Roques and to the west of the church of Sant Francesc we have the Mol\u00ed d’en Mateu and the Mol\u00ed d’en Jeroni.<\/p>\n