Douro watermills: water power since the tenth century

Long before turbines, the Douro was already a power plant. The Olivares watermills, documented since the tenth century, ground grain for the city of Zamora by harnessing the river current with vertical wheels.

Restored as an interpretation space, the complex now lets visitors see up close the wooden and stone mechanisms that made milling a riverside trade. A few minutes away, the Cabañales quarter holds another medieval complex, a testimony to the industrial density the river sustained.

On the watermills route, every stop is a lesson in pre-industrial engineering — and a reminder that the energy transition began many centuries ago.