Barranco Grande Mill

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Industrial architecture · Year: S. XVII

The remains that exist today of this impressive windmill do not reflect what it once was. Its conical shape was topped by an irregular cover separated by a turning mechanism based on wooden collars. Through this top, the main shaft that held the sails protruded on one side and on the opposite end, a pole called the rudder. There is a very similar example of this mill in the Cuevas Blancas area.

The interior of the Barranco Grande mill consists of a cylinder 4 metres in diameter divided into three floors with a total height of approximately 10 metres. It had access doors on the ground floor and first floor. The ground floor was called "cabuco", being at ground level, also serving as a storage room and sometimes as the miller's bedroom. The ascent to the first floor was made by a double-access staircase adapted to the conical shape and its width was usually about one metre. On this first floor there was a bench where customers waited for the gofio to come out, which they collected themselves at the mouth of the hopper or "Cambal". A wooden staircase led up to the third floor where the mill machinery was located, the miller's workplace.

Today part of the original construction of this Barranco Grande mill is preserved. It was declared BIC (Bien de Interés Cultural - Asset of Cultural Interest) at the end of 2007.

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