Windmill in Canada das Terças

Category: Civil Architecture > Windmill

District: Açores > Horta > Flamengos

Location

The Windmill in Canada das Terças stands in the locality of Flamengos, belonging to the municipality of Horta, on Faial Island, Azores. Its position, often on slightly elevated ground, allows it to capture the dominant winds, essential for its operation. It is immersed in a rural setting, typical of the Faialense landscape, characterized by green fields and the presence of nature that shapes the archipelago.

The "Canada das Terças" suggests a path or a specific area within this parish, where the structure harmoniously integrates into the bucolic countryside, offering an authentic perspective of local life and history.

Structure and Historical Function

This windmill represents an example of traditional Azorean engineering, designed to harness wind power, which is abundant on the island. Its construction is generally robust, with stone walls that give it solidity and resistance to climatic conditions. Typically cylindrical or conical in shape, these structures housed inside them the mechanisms that transformed the rotational movement of the sails, driven by the wind, into the energy needed to grind cereals such as wheat and corn.

The Windmill in Canada das Terças is, therefore, a silent testament to an era when self-sufficiency and the ability to transform natural resources were essential pillars of daily life in the island communities, profoundly marking the local landscape and culture.

Landscape and Setting

The presence of this windmill in the Flamengos landscape is not just a reminder of Faial's agricultural past, but also an element that visually enriches its natural setting. From its location, it is common to enjoy unobstructed views of the surrounding fields, and sometimes, to glimpse the coastline or other elevations of the island.

Its silhouette outlined against the sky, with its sails potentially turning with the wind, is a symbol of the intrinsic relationship between man and nature in the archipelago, inviting reflection on ancestral practices and the serene beauty of the Azorean rural environment.

License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.pt