Molí d'en Suau

Molí d'en Suau is a historic flour windmill in Manacor, Mallorca, one of the surviving landmarks of the old Fartàritx mill quarter. It no longer grinds grain, but its stone tower still stands along a city street as a reminder of the era when wind power drove the local flour trade.

Where is it located?

Molí d'en Suau stands at Carrer dels Enagistes 2 in Manacor, the second-largest town on Mallorca, in the east-central part of the island. The mill belongs to the Fartàritx complex, a historic hillside district on the edge of town where windmills were built for generations to take advantage of the exposed, wind-swept terrain. Today many of these structures, Molí d'en Suau among them, survive as part of Manacor's cultural landscape, now woven into the fabric of ordinary streets and residential buildings.

What does the mill look like?

Like other Mallorcan flour windmills, the building has a tapering base, a single story in height, closed off with a molded cornice carved from marès sandstone. The wall combines local green stone with dressed marès ashlar, giving the structure a distinctive two-tone texture visible all around its base. A small open courtyard survives in front of the mill.

The east façade preserves the imprint of a round-arched portal framed in marès stone, with a window set beside it. On the south façade, two openings line up together: a round-arched portal and a window to its left, plus an exterior staircase leading up to the mill's upper level. This arrangement let the miller reach the grinding machinery housed above the stone base without needing an interior stairwell.

What role did Fartàritx play in Manacor's history?

The Fartàritx hillside, now partly absorbed into the growing town, served for generations as an economic backbone of Manacor — a place where the wind turned the sails of one mill after another, grinding grain into flour for the surrounding region. Molí d'en Suau, alongside its neighboring windmills, once formed a recognizable skyline typical of many towns in central Mallorca, where wind-powered milling underpinned the local food economy until industrial mechanization took over in the 20th century.

Is it worth seeing while visiting Manacor?

Molí d'en Suau isn't a major tourist site with visitor facilities, but for anyone exploring Manacor on foot, or looking for less obvious corners of the town, it makes an interesting stop. It offers a close look at the construction of a typical Mallorcan flour windmill — its stone texture, proportions, and architectural details — away from the crowds found at the island's better-known landmarks. It's best seen as part of a walk through the district's older streets, ideally in the cooler hours of the day, during spring or autumn.

Frequently asked questions

What is Molí d'en Suau? It is a historic flour windmill in Manacor, Mallorca, part of the old Fartàritx mill complex.

Where exactly is it located? At Carrer dels Enagistes 2 in Manacor, within the former Fartàritx mill quarter.

What is the mill built from? Marès sandstone and local green stone, with a tapering base topped by a molded cornice and round-arched portals on its façades.

Is the windmill still in operation? No, Molí d'en Suau survives as a historic structure and part of the cultural landscape, not as a working mill.