Junqueiras Windmills → Lavoura da Bouça

(translation under review)
Welcome to Junqueiras Windmills at Navais – Póvoa de Varzim!!!

We present two windmills, one for grinding, the other for support.

I’m happy to see the “beautiful” windmills, bringing back childhood memories, when I came with a group of friends to launch kites in the shape of stars and suns.

The Junqueira family owns Windmills in Navais – Póvoa de Varzim. The process of restoring the mill to a better state of conservation in terms of masonry began. Following respectfull construction methods, introducing improvements in terms of materials, methods and reinforcement for longevity. We found a carpenter with proven reputation and experience – something rare these days (Master Paulo Rodrigues – Carpintaria PMHR de Penacova), and a carpentry bricklayer, Mr Isaac.

First windmill is intended for milling, we open casually, for educational purposes, testimony to subsequent generations, and contribution to the community.

Second windmill, more flexible, detined to exhibition, future museum, support, or seasonal experience of sleepin at windmill.

We have been happy to share this, as a contribution to the Naval Community, in the Facebook Group “Os Amigos dos Moinhos dos Junqueiras”.

Consult work register of Windmill 1 (grinding), or Windmill 2 (support).

Opened on August 7, 2022, by the Reverend Parish Priest of Navais, António Pedro Amorim.

With support from Parish Councils of Aguçadoura, Navais and Estela;
Groups, local associations, and population.

We thank all the Friends of Moinhos dos Junqueiras!!!

Article from the MAIS/Semanário newspaper – PDF or digital newspaper.

VISITS

For general public and schools:

15 Eur – Regular visits, 1 to 10 people.
Includes: Exterior/interior, without grinding/without operation.
Mrs. Mira Junqueira will open the two mills.

120 Eur – Visits with Grinding and Miller, up to 20 people.
150 Eur – Same, 20 to 30 people.
Includes: Travel of the miller Mr Pedro Vieira, up to 2 hours of presentation, grinding and operation.

For other modalities, to be agreed.

My parents used to come here to get flour to make bread. At that time there was nothing else. Before, bread lasted 8 days!!! (…) This thing went to that road (…) there was one more way to get here.

Mrs. Lurdes Rodrigues, currently 90 years old, says that she still remembers seeing my great-grandfather José Gomes da Junqueira, who built them, working with at least the mill on the right, for grinding.

INAUGURATION PANFLET TEXT*

(*text taken from)

The land was acquired, with a deed dated August 6, 1906, written by the illustrious notary Manuel Gonçalves da Silva, between the farmers Manuel Gomes Eirado, Ermelinda Gomes Ervalho, and the acquirer José Gomes da Junqueira.
At the time, with the intention of building and putting into operation two windmills on the hill of sand, including «wheels for ox carts serving the windmills, up the hill».

The construction, of uncertain date, built two landmark windmills, in the golden age of flour production. In conjunction with mills in the region, Apúlia, S. Félix, Aver-o-Mar, Baleia, Paradela, among others. Flour was mainly sold in bulk. In times of famine, mills played a fundamental role for society and the local population.

The construction typology at the time is presumed to be similar to proximity mills, and drawings from the Grinding Systems book*1. However, there are no traces left of what they looked like in the past. Just stone ruins resistant to time.

Economic-social development, war, industry, electricity, dictated new means of producing flour, leaving mills in disuse, abandoned, and falling into ruin. Few adapted, like Uncle Abílio Junqueira’s Azenha, replacing the power of the river with the more constant and lasting power of electricity.
Artur Junqueira (father of José Francisco P. B. Junqueira), passed away in 2009, aged 81, and remembered that in his youth, he studied and worked inside the mill.

In the Junqueiras family, they always liked and/or worked in mills, whether wind or river. Today Uncle Abílio’s Azenha still exists, electrically grinding flour, especially for animal feed.

Mr. José Junqueira, with dedication, and deepening of various knowledge about windmills, over the last decades, grew the desire to rebuild the Junqueiras Windmills, with the aim of recovering the Memory, contributing to the local community, to the people, for the region. He attended various colloquia and conferences on the subject, from World Meetings in Boticas, Nationals, others of relevance, and above all contact with people who value art.

The extinction of the art of building mills, by qualified people, who were now aging and far from the region, made the process difficult. However, with persistence and patience, in Penacova, Master Paulo Rodrigues, from Carpintaria PMHR, was discovered. With his grandfather, as a child, he participated in milling, learning and reinforcing his passion for mills. The art of carpentry comes from before his great-grandparents, between generations, in addition to the art of carpentry and boatmanship. With the support of his wife Paula Costeira, and master Armando de Almeida, in around 2018, the reconstruction of the first mill began, with a complete milling machine.

The type of mill, in line with the image of the mills of Aguçadoura and Navais (Póvoa de Varzim), however, reinforcing old methods and materials with new, more resistant, long-lasting ones, to guarantee greater longevity, a practice also common throughout the history and other reference mills.

The art of stone and masonry was equally fundamental, with the wise hands of Master Isac Morim, a bricklayer from Navais. In addition to the consolidation of the first mill, the patient rebuilding of the second mill, in around 2021, with almost no stone wall, re-emerged from the ruins, with robust and reinforced walls! The latter for exhibition, without ingenuity.

Evoke D. Daniel Junqueira, and mark the restoration of the Junqueiras Windmills, in Navais.

The team, the people, were fundamental to the success of the new Memória! We deeply thank all the people involved, whether directly or indirectly, who contributed to the union of Navais, Aguçadoura, and Estela. Marked, at present, by the Celebration from the 5th to the 7th of August 2022, with an event among all, including an exhibition, gathering, procession, local arts, theater and fair. A renewal of memory, a contribution to future generations.

*1 by Fernando Galhano, Ernesto Veiga de Oliveira and Benjamim Pereira

Text by Hugo Nascimento, Arch.

GRAPHICS

Thank You
Participants in the Restoration

Master Isac Gomes Morim [Bricklayer]
Master Paulo Rodrigues [ PMHR Carpentry ]
Paula Costeira [ PMHR Carpentry ]
Armando de Almeida [ PMHR Carpentry ]
João Gravina [Wood transport]
Pedro Morim [Tractor driver and general support]
José Vilar [Tractor driver, mast placement]
José Domingues [Electricity Supply]
Hugo Nascimento, Arch. [Report, General Support]
“Os Camponeses de Navais” [Local Folklore Ranch]
Armando Ferreira [Moinhos de Portugal]

José Francisco P.B. Junqueira
Owner, who very warmly thanks everyone

www.lavouradabouca.com
Organic Fruit and Local Accommodation
+351 962 352 931

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facebook.com/groups/amigosmoinhosjunqueiras
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