The Windmill looking down upon the village of Carrazeda has always been part of the popular imagination that over the last 100 years has become used to seeing a very old isolated structure over the Fragaria, wondering about its origin and purpose. Among today's elderly population, there is no memory of the time when it still worked. In the early 80s, however, important testimonies were collected, among the older inhabitants of the village, which today help us to understand a little of the history. In 1900, Damião Gonçalves Neves, originally from Oporto, decided to build a windmill that would replace the old watermill located on the fertile plain, along the road to Fontelonga. The windmill worked for about a decade, grinding the wheat from the surrounding fields, which the women carried on their heads along the narrow country road that climbs up through the fragaria. Here, Damião Neves and his assistant turned grain into flour, which was then bagged and used to feed the growing population of this village of Trás-os-Montes. Little is known about why this structure stopped working and there is speculation about the difficulty of operation and the unpredictability of the wind. It is however certain that this type of wind structures were later replaced by steam engines fed by coal and diesel engines.
Location: Carrazeda de Ansiães
