Gallery

MOLINS

The municipality of Banyeres de Mariola has a very rich and varied industrial background. The itinerary of the river Vinalopó through the town boundaries is surrounded by very characteristic constructions such as cloth mills, flour mills and paper mills. These buildings were the symbol of an era and now help us to understand how the industry was then.

MOLÍ DEL PARTIDOR

It is located on the right bank of the river. There were two buildings; one of them was a paper mill. The two-tub mill was powered by the water coming down from the water divider and now the place where the waterwheel was located is still in existence. Its structure resembles the paper mills in the area, characterized by their vaulted roofs on the ground floor; on the first floor the cloths were selected and it is covered by beams; and the top floor, where the windows were larger for the drying of the paper, was topped by a sloping roof. Currently this building is well-preserved. It has become a second home.

MOLÍ OMBRIA

This was the first mill built in the high course of the river Vinalopó. It is located on the left bank of the river. Its creator was Laureano Ballester, but his mismanagement made that in the early 19th century very few mills remained his property. Then it became property of José Laporta Valor, who never used it to make paper, but to supply electric lighting to the Molí Sol and the Molí Pont. Nowadays the state of this mill is ruinous. In its main body it consists of a vaulted ground floor on which there is another floor divided into two well defined sections; the second and third floors were devoted to the drying of the paper, with a sloping roof sheltered with tiles and wood boards between the beams. Downstream the Molí l'Ombria, there is the Molí Serrella, today a private property transformed into a second home. This mill was a flour mill. Nowadays its grindstones are kept in the basement.

MOLÍ SOL (Blanc i Negre)

It is located on the right bank of the river, attached to the Molí Torro. This mill is also known by the name of Blanco y Negro (black and white), due to the cigarette paper it manufactured. It was built in 1856. This mill has a rectangular shape including four bays, with an elevation of four floors. The ground floor corresponds to a semi-basement vaulted by rectangular pillars. The first floor, which you can enter through the main floor, was devoted to the toilets of the workers, offices and homes, and it repeats the reticulated structure created in the semi-basement, but that configures it as a lintelled system of wooden beams on mortar pillars. This scheme is repeated on the upper floors. The second and third floors were used for the air-drying of the paper. Several attachments were added to the main building at different times, depending on the needs of the industry (workshops for carpentry, blacksmithing, house of the doorman, etc.). Shortly before the mill you can see the settling ponds used to clean the water before its entry into the mill. Its general current conservation is average.

MOLÍ TORRÓ

It is a flour mill from the 17th century. It consists of a rectangular plan with simple facade and a sloping roof. It was in 1764 when we learnt about its belonging to the family Torró, who give the building its name. Later, the building of the Molí Sol was added to the mill, thus becoming a paper mill in 1862, after having established an underground pipe for the use of water from the river. It kept the vaults under which the grindstones revolved to make flour. Although few remnants are preserved today, it is worthy of our attention, as it is one of the few vestiges that remain from the 17th century.

MOLÍ PONT

It is located on the left bank of the river. In its origins it was a flour mill. In 1758 Mauro Aparisi, the priest of the parish of Banyeres, had a flour mill built, which belonged to the administration of the Church, in order to pay for the cost of the building of the new church. But in 1877 José Mora Navarro bought it and built up a paper mill next to it. Such paper mill was the most important in Banyeres because of its production of cigarette paper and booklets. By the end of the 19th century it was acquired by José Laporta Valor, who renamed it as the Innovadora. In 1935 it was integrated into Papeleras Reunidas S.A. (Alcoy). In 1964 it closed down because it was not competitive. Its current state is not very good in spite of the fact that a few years ago the roofs of the main buildings were restored.

MOLÍ L’ASPENTA O MOLÍ SAN JORGE

It is located on the left bank of the river, in the Bovar area. It is popularly known as the Molí l'Aspenta because it was partially swept along as a result of one of the floods of the Vinalopó. It has a rectangular structure of 10 meters in length and 5 meters wide, with a vaulted semi-basement, a ground floor and a first floor for the drying of the paper. The semi-basement has a structure of a vaulted roof, where the waterwheel stood and where the paper was manufactured. The ground floor, where the cloth was selected, is built with beams and joists and the first floor has a tiled sloping roof with a wooden and thatched inside. It was used to hang and dry the paper. It is currently in ruins.

MOLÍ ROIG O MOLÍ DEL CATALÁ

Localitzat en el marge dret del riu Vinalopó.
Molí hidràulic que funcionava amb la força de l'aigua del riu, per a aconseguir la força per a impulsar la maquinària es va construir un assut, que el compartiria amb el Molí Tap.
Aquest molí té el seu origen en un antic batà, però és en 1778, quan Laureano Ballester i Francisco Belda tenen l'intent de construir un molí en aquesta ubicació. En 1821 Antonio Ferre ven les terres a Juan Casasempere per a realitzar aquest projecte.
Actualment conserva la seua estructura principal, planta rectangular, i un alçat de quatre plantes, amb coberta a dues aigües sustentada per una armadura de fusta amb tres bigues longitudinals.

MOLÍ FORCALL

Localitzat al marge dret del riu Vinalopó. A aquest molí se li coneixen diversos usos, des de molí fariner a productor d'energia per a l'enllumenat elèctric del municipi, a principis del s.XX es coneix la seua funció com molí paperer, on pren més importància. El seu estat de conservació en l'actualitat és en ruïnes.

MOLÍ SANS

Localitzat en el marge dret del riu, és l'últim molí de Banyeres situat en la confluència del Vinalopó i la Marjal.
La seua activitat va començar en 1860 quan Vicente Sanz Martínez construeix el molí. .
La seua estructura és la característica dels molins paperers, contant en la seua planta baixa amb l'estructura de cobertes amb voltes, on es situava la roda hidràulica i era on es fabricava el paper. La primera planta on se seleccionava el drap i la coberta on s'assecava el paper.

MOLÍ TAP O MOLÍ SANT JOSÉ

Localitzat en la part dreta del riu Vinalopó, contigu al Molí Roig.
Primer va ser construït el batà i després el molí. Tenia altra consideració, el molí de Sant Josep.
Les primeres notícies conegudes del molí es deuen a un carreu marcat amb l'any 1847. Aquest molí a la fi del s. XIX principis del s. XX era de planta rectangular, amb formes característiques de la topologia dels molins.
Actualment el seu estat és ruïnós, però encara es conserva l'edifici primitiu del que comentàvem la seua estructura, a més conserva el semisoterrani abovedat i la ximenera dels anys 50 del s. XX.

WORKSHOP OF L’ESTACIÓ

It is located in the industrial area, next to the old train station. The inside of the workshop follows the same constructive scheme of vaults and lintels supported on mortar pillars, although in some buildings of this group you can see the use of iron for the assembling of the roof. Its architecture takes elements from the academic classicism for the dignity of manufacturing buildings and this implied a concern for the decoration of the facades. The main facade and the other parts of the building keep the same aesthetic of walls without ornamentation. Its current state is still ruinous. The main facade and the side facades are still preserved.

MOLÍ FARINER DE BENASAIT

It is set in the path called dels Pinarets. It is a rectangular flour mill with a sloping roof, supported by a wooden structure consisting of three square pillars and Arabian tiles covering it. You can see two floors: the upper floor is the grinding room and the lower level housed the main mill machinery. This mill is privately owned.

MOLÍ FARINER DE DANIEL

This mill originally housed the spirits factory that belonged to Laureano Ballesteros’ industrial complex. In 1930 it became a feed and cereal mill until its closure at the end of the 19th century. This mill took advantage of the flows of water for the operation of the machinery, thanks to a ditch situated next to one of the walls of the mill. Today this mill is in good condition. This mill is privately owned.