Small farm

Category: Culture and Entertainment > Zoo

District: Setúbal > Santiago do Cacém > Santo André > Foros do Cabeço

Location

The place known as "Quintinha" is strategically positioned in the Cumeadas, an elevated area of the locality of Santo André, in the municipality of Santiago do Cacém. It is part of the Foros do Cabeço urbanization, being part of an old pre-industrial milling belt of the city. Its location offers a unique perspective on the surroundings, giving it a prominent presence in the landscape.

A Milling Legacy

The Quintinha mill is a testament to the deep historical connection between communities and the forces of nature. These windmills, often standing solitary in elevated spots, served for centuries as sentinels, harnessing wind energy for cereal grinding. The vast milling richness of the Santiago do Cacém region, which once boasted dozens of windmills and watermills, highlights the importance of this activity. The recovery and maintenance of the Quintinha mill by the municipality reflect an effort to preserve this heritage and the memories of a time when wind was transformed into bread.

The Art of Traditional Milling

This example of a mill, built in masonry with its characteristic conical trunk tower, features a cap that rotates through an ingenious winch system. Since its reactivation in the 1980s, it continues to operate, allowing visitors to witness, whenever weather conditions are favorable, the ancestral process of cereal milling. It is fascinating to observe how the force of the wind drives the millstones, transforming grain into flour. The tradition remains alive, with rural inhabitants still bringing their cereals to be ground, resulting in flour used for traditional homemade bread, corn porridge, or for feeding domestic animals, following a payment method as old as the practice of milling itself.

A Miller's Curiosity

Associated with the history of millers, there is a fun popular curiosity that takes us back to ancient times and the constant vigilance of the mill guardians. Legend has it that all millers had a dog, but this dog always had to be black. The reason for this particularity was practical and somewhat humorous: a black dog would easily allow one to detect if the animal had stuck its nose in the flour, as the white would immediately stand out against its dark coat.

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