Parque Natural da Ria Formosa

 

It is a mill designed for the milling of grain that takes advantage of the energy of the tides: the water stored in the large reservoir near the mill (boiler) during the flood, is released in the ebb, causing the grinding wheels. The appearance of tide mills in Portugal dates from the thirteenth century, having survived until our time with minimal modifications. By the middle of the twentieth century many were already abandoned, due to competition from mechanical milling - the same fate had been the river holmes and windmills. Tide mills were almost always built in estuaries of rivers and lagoons - in Ria Formosa there were 30 of these mills. The New Mill of Marim, built in 1885, was the last to be closed, already in 1970 and later to be restored by PNRF.