Mills of the Guadalquivir

The Guadalquivir River watermills are located in Córdoba, Spain. Most of the 11 mills were founded in Moorish times. Many of them have been used till the 1940s. On 30 June 2009, they were declared an Andalusian Historical Heritage site.

Description
Most of the Guadalquivir water mills are near the city center of Córdoba. Two of them are about 5 km upstream and one is about 4 km downstream. They are 11 independent buildings, but most of them share a weir with other water mills. Some of the mill buildings house multiple mills.

The weirs serve to create a steady water supply. Two of them, the Weir of Culeb Azud de Culeb and the Weir of Alhadra Azud de Alhadra date from Moorish times. The weirs of the Martos, Lope García and Carbonell mills date from Medieval times.

Arab chronicles mentioned mills located on the Culeb and Alhadra weirs. We can therefore assume that the buildings on the Culeb and Alhadra weirs near the historic centre date from Moorish times. This also goes for the Martos Mill. After the Christian conquest, the mills were distributed among the nobility, the church, and military and religious orders. In the 19th century most of the mills became private property when the church assets were nationalized.

The mills were almost all used as flour mills for some time. This ended in 1942, when artisinal milling was prohibited. Already in medieval times many were adapted to also function as fulling mills. In the late nineteenth century many became small hydroelectric plants. This was also when many wheels were replaced by cast iron turbines. Later, these adapted water mills were pushed out of the market by hydroelectric plants that use a reservoir.

Some of the mills have been restored and are now used for cultural and tourism purposes. The Alegría mill houses the Museum of Paleobotany within the Royal Botanic Garden of Córdoba. The Martos mill is now the Hydrological Museum of Córdoba.

Location
The names of these eleven mills are Albolafia, Alegría watermill, Carbonell, Casillas, Emmedio, Lope García, Martos, Pápalo Tierno, San Antonio, San Lorenzo, and San Rafael. From upstream to downstream, the mills are located as follows: