Pico’s Windmills

We have seen several windmills and remains of windmills on the island.

Windmills began to be built in the 16th century and were important to the development of the islands’ economy. Grinding grains was a necessity in food production. Historically, windmills are remnants of the island’s colonisation by both Flemish and Portuguese settlers.

One of the windmills that we saw is called the Moinho do Frade. This mill is surrounded by acres of vineyards. Tourists started coming to see it and the community got the money to fully restore the mill in 2003/4. The mill apparently is in working order, driven by its 4 bladed propeller.

Another restored windmill is called Moinho do Monte. The door was open so we could go up the steps and look inside to see how the mill’s mechanism would ground wheat for flour.

In many places, we just saw the round stone bottoms of ruined mills in lot with overgrown vegetation.Read more