The Formentera Patrimony Department announces new winter hours in place for public visits at local heritage sites. Visiting hours will also resume from November to May at the “Old La Mola Windmill” (molí Vell de la Mola) — a landmark over which the Consell reclaims control in 2020 in an effort to guarantee year-round access.

The following hours will be kept from November to May:

Molí Vell de la Mola: Saturday and Sunday from 10.00am to 2.00pm. Free admission.

Formentera Ethnographic Collection: Tuesday to Friday from 9.00am to 2.00pm. Free admission.

Torre des Pi des Català: Visits must be scheduled in advance by emailing patrimoni@conselldeformentera.cat. Free admission.

Restoration work
Work is currently being done to restore assorted parts of the windmill apparatus. Since pine pieces deteriorate naturally when exposed to the elements and the wind’s mechanical force, upgrades and maintenance were deemed necessary on two poorly preserved wooden sweeps.

In the interest of visitor safety and to determine necessary repairs, crews disassembled the monument’s interior wholesale before beginning restoration work.

In 2020 the Consell reached a rental agreement with the windmill’s owner, the Balearic Islands Foundation, giving local government control over the premises and opening hours for six Local councilmembers passed a measure at the November full-house assembly classing the monument as a cultural interest site.

11 November 2020
Communications Department
Consell de Formentera

The Formentera Department of Language Normalisation reports that, aside from adhering to the European Day of Languages on Saturday 26 September, the department has added its name to a proclamation by the Govern balear favouring diversity of European languages and cultures and efforts to foment and protect them.

“This day is crucial to securing the official status of Catalan in Europe”, said FDCN chief Raquel Guasch. “Keep in mind, in Spain and in the Catalan-speaking lands in particular, there are still milestones of linguistic normalisation that we’ve yet to reach”, she continued. “Catalan still doesn’t benefit from the prestige and presence of its status as an official language. This is about highlighting the importance of language policies within public administrations”, she insisted.

Guasch said preserving the Catalan language was key, and remarked the Consell’s adoption earlier this year of revised nomenclature for towns, roads and public spaces in urban areas on the island was “essential...the visibility of toponyms means our attention to this subject is crucial”.

Promoted by the Balearic divisions of exterior relations and language policies, week-long celebrations around the European Day of Languages were joined by different island councils in the Balearics, the Federation of Local Entities in the Balearic Islands (FELIB), the Palma municipal government and Europe’s Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity.

The keynote act is a 7.00pm lecture tomorrow (Friday) at the Balearic parliament by Antoni Llabrés. The doctor and professor of law at the UIB will speak about the legal aspects of multilingual regions and language rights. The talk will be livecast at diaeuropeullengues.caib.cat.

24 September 2020
Department of Communications
Consell de Formentera

The Formentera heritage office reports that from 12 August La Mola’s historical windmill, El molí Vell de la Mola, is reopening for free public visits on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays from 5.00pm to 8.00pm.

One of seven wind-powered flour mills on Formentera and a key component of the island’s ethnological patrimony (the machinery that rendered flour milling possible remains intact within), the building is included in the local catalogue of cultural heritage sites. At the November 2019 Consell de Formentera plenary, members of the assembly voted to initiate proceedings to afford the windmill official protection as a cultural interest site, or BIC.

The monument is property of the Balearic Islands Foundation. Past partnership agreements with local government meant the foundation was responsible for staffing the site so it could be visited. That is, until difficulties with the particular formula led to consensus around the idea of leasing the site under the proviso that visits be allowed. For the next years, opening hours and visits will be handled directly by the Consell de Formentera.

12 August 2020
Communications Department
Consell de Formentera

The Formentera heritage office has launched a call for applications for the Consell’s research grant, recently subject to a €2,500 funding increase bringing the value of the award to €8,500 in 2020.

The terms of the call are already available on the BOIB regional gazette website, and interested researchers have until 11 September to submit applications. The initiative is designed to promote scientific research in the arts, humanities or social sciences on Formentera.

“Over the years submissions have taken on scale and importance in step with the grant itself, and a fresh funding impulse had become necessary”, confided department chief Raquel Guasch.

At the close of submissions, a review committee will be formed by several individuals to evaluate projects based on scientific interest, coherency, methodology and each researchers' professional experience.Research must be conducted within 12 months of the announcement of the recipient.

Last year prize money went to a project led by Antoni Ferrer Abárzuza, Doctor of History, Autonomous University of Barcelona, and titled “Remembering the rural farmer: Gathering oral accounts of traditional productive activity on Formentera (dry farming, vineyard production, livestock farming, etc)”.

4 August 2020
Department of Communications
Consell de Formentera