In this southern part of the province of Pontevedra, mills are known as muños. It is the local name used in an area rich in rivers and streams, where milling was of great importance to the local economy. At a time when electricity had not yet arrived, part of the local population’s diet depended on the flour produced in these muños.
The muños are one of the most representative examples of traditional Galician architecture and a highly valuable part of the region’s ethnographic heritage. Important moments of rural life took place around these buildings. News from the area, legends, history, stories and, ultimately, popular culture and traditions were passed on by word of mouth beside these structures while the mill turned grain into flour.
Water from the streams reached the muños through channels, of varying length depending on the distance from the river. Through a funnel-shaped channel, the water entered the lower chamber to drive the wheel. In this way, the energy of the water was transformed into rotary movement, which was transmitted to the millstone through the touzo, setting the stone in motion and grinding the grain against the fixed base stone.
Just a few metres from the last muño, there is a channel that carries part of the water from the River Cal towards the mills of Folón and Picón. It reaches the Muíños do Nivel, where the water is divided to supply both groups of mills.