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The councilman of Environment, Garden and Urbanism, Antonio Navarro, visited this morning the remains of the Old Mill of the Gunpowder, built in the first decades of the eighteenth century, taking advantage of the impulse of the Acequia de la Aljufía, next to the place called The canals of Rincon de Beniscornia.

The City Council is currently working on the recovery of this infrastructure. The project, written by the architects Antonio Abellán, Juan Antonio Santa Cruz, Javier Esquiva and Carmen Santa Cruz, together with the archaeologists Luis García Blánquez and Consuelo Martínez, has been consensual with The Board of Ranchers and has had the involvement and collaboration of the Municipal Board of Rincon de Beniscornia.

In addition, since it is a private land, it has been counted on the collaboration of the owners who have authorized the excavations and have offered the plot for its adaptation and functional integration in the architectural and urbanistic performance.

The integral project that is being developed consists of the recovery and valorization of the remains of the mill itself, the restoration of the stone cloths from the surroundings of the Aljufía ditch and the recovery of its owners.

Likewise, the excavation and integration of the remains of the whole old mill and the creation and recovery of a natural environment that serves as a stay and viewing area to contemplate and make known the whole is being carried out.

Thus, the project envisages the construction of a viewpoint-scenario that will allow the contemplation of the canal, while it can be used as a stay area.

In addition, the existing botanical species have been inventoried to carry out a naturalized recovery of the enclosure delimited by a bypass channel that was part of the operation of the old mill, thus limiting the area of ​​intervention and recovery.

At present, there are three canals, the spillway and an auxiliary canal (known as the Pavón armor), in addition to the swamp or regolfo.

The three main canals are separated by slats of ashlar masonry with their respective porches with sandstone brenches.

Thus, before starting the execution of the rehabilitation project, an action has been carried out to verify the conservation of industrial remains in the subsoil.

The survey conducted in the immediate area to the vertical wheel, where theoretically had to be located the so-called pica room, has discovered new channels that remained hidden, solid brick walls that delimit a large work space and brick pavements associated with that area.

Within the documented work area, there is a large, partially destroyed longitudinal base, along with several charred pieces of wood, among which a double timber and various bevelled cut cylindrical pieces are identified, identified with the machinery and With possible utensils used in the manipulation of the powdered wet powder.

On the other hand, it is verified that the walls extend to both sides of the sounding, reason why it is foreseeable that the complete plant of the building is conserved that, in principle and with the due reservations, can be identified with one of the dependencies of the mill Where the gunpowder was made, without ruling out that this space was reused partly by the later batán.

Thus, these archaeological excavations prior to the execution of the project forecasts, authorized by the General Directorate of Cultural Property, have confirmed the initial assumptions of the existence of an important powder-making complex, prior to the famous Ñora Factory.

These remains will be protected and integrated into the final project once land ownership becomes available.

Councilor Antonio Navarro stressed that it is "an interesting project in itself and serves as a model of how to undertake the recovery of the environmental and cultural heritage of the Huerta integrating it into a tour for your visit, explanation and enjoyment."

It should be remembered that the Department of Town Planning has implemented an ambitious plan to recover the heritage of the mills that are in the ditches, which includes the Molino de la Pólvora, which have characteristics that make it unique, both for its Destination and use as for its interesting landscape environment.

History of the Gunpowder Mill

It is possible to be considered that in Murcia it begins to manufacture gunpowder, officially, in the middle of century XVII (1637/1654) when, by Royal Order of Felipe IV, the Real Factory of Salitre is created in the street Acisclo Diaz (old street of the Acequia Aljufía).

Prior to this official beginning, in 1633, the concession for the construction of a gunpowder mill was given to Francisco Berastegui y Lisón, husband of Giomar Carrillo, owner of the mayorazgo of Javalí Viejo;

Mill that will be known as "Molino Alto", in contrast to the one in question, that will be built, later, downstream of the flour mill of the Ñora (of Puxmarín or Los Casianos), in the same ditch of Aljufía, in the payment of Guadeloupe, currently, Rincon de Beniscornia.

Although to determine the date of construction of the old Beniscornia gunpowder mill is to be expected at the conclusion of the investigation in the historical archives of Murcia, this could happen in the first decades of the eighteenth century, when the General Manager of the Royal Powers of Murcia, Don Francisco Zoco, received from SM the mandate to increase the production of gunpowder by 4,000 quintals more each year, to the 11,000 that was already assigned by the General Provider of the Kingdom.

After the request for a license to the Council and various recognitions of the part of the canal where it was planned to be built, the works started immediately.

Although some inconveniences arose, at first, as the deposit of a bank of formed by the concrete frame of the mill on the acequia, the works had to conclude in short time.

A few years later, in 1727, the mill was already at full capacity, producing 24 hours a day, under the tutelage of a miller, Francisco Jilbente, an officer, Alonso Gómez, and a morterero, Francisco Simiente, all of them neighbors of The Ñora.

On July 27, 1742, a large explosion took place in one of the gunpowder mills, without knowing for sure which one was affected: Molino Alto de Javalí Viejo, or Los Canalaos de Beniscornia.

Nevertheless, it seems that the mill of Beniscornia continued to produce gunpowder until the beginning of the 19th century, when the artillery weapon definitively took over its manufacture (1802) in the current Fábrica de la Ñora.

Afterwards, the facilities were transformed into a batch of chop esparto and eras (1802-1870), remaining in disuse until its last rehabilitation as a flour mill in the first decades of the twentieth century, when it is finally abandoned.

Source: Ayuntamiento de Murcia