Àreu Sawmill

This small water-power site at an altitude of 1,250m in the Pyrenees is open from June to September as part of MNACTEC, the technical museums network of Catalunya. It comprises a sawmill, a flour mill and a hydro-electric power plant using the rapid stream of La Noguera de Vallfera. An earlier mill was destroyed by flooding in the late 19^th century and the present stone buildings were built up the slope and supplied by a leat from a weir upstream. Two buildings are preserved with their equipment. The first building is a sawmill of a type used in the region for hundreds of years to cut planks and beams. A vertical saw and a moving table to advance the timber are powered by a primitive undershot waterwheel. The second building is a corn mill, which made flour for local people until the 1960s. It has a horizontal waterwheel with a direct drive to grindstones on the floor above. A 1920s turbine to generate electricity is also preserved.