Landscapes and monuments of Spain

Number by catalogue:  Michel: 2562   Yvert: 2298   Scott: 2304  

Perforation type: 13x12 ½

Subject:

4 peseta. The water wheel**, submitting water on an aqueduct, Alcantarilla, Murcia province*

Additional:

*Alcantarilla is a town and municipality in southeastern Spain, in the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia. The town is only 7 km away from the capital of the region, the city of Murcia, and one of its peculiarities is that it is completely surrounded by "pedanías" (satellite districts or boroughs) of the municipality of Murcia.

The Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia (Spanish: Comunidad Autónoma de la Región de Murcia) is one of Spain's seventeen autonomous communities, located in the southeast of the country, between Andalusia and Valencian Community, on the Mediterranean coast.
The city of Murcia is the capital of the Region.

The region is a major producer of fruits, vegetables, and flowers for Spain and the rest of Europe. Excellent wineries have developed near the towns of Bullas, Yecla, and Jumilla, as well as olive oil near Moratalla. Murcia is mainly a warm region which has made it very suitable for agriculture.

**Rueda o Noria (Medieval water wheel)

This wheel is formed by the hydraulic remains belonging to a traditional control system which irrigated the orchards of Murcia. When the Arabs first came to the Iberian Peninsula, they found a primitive form of a Roman irrigation network. After making scientific studies of the land, they greatly improved this network, constructing many hydraulic arrangements for irrigating the whole of their domain. Rivers and wells were exploited and underground sources of water were discovered. Channels were cut, even in solid rock, dams built and the windmill introduced from the East.

The water-wheel or "noria" (from the Arabic naura) was also brought from the eastern lands. With ingenious feats of engineering they provided water everywhere. The Region of Murcia was no exception and, around or on the Segura River there were several mills operational between the 13th and 15th centuries.

The water wheel of Alcantarilla, on the acequia Mayor de Alquibla or "Barreras" acequia, goes back to medieval times. The first modern wheel was built in 1457. This first wheel and subsequent ones were wooden but in the nineteenth century, an iron wheel was built. The present wheel is from 1956, based on the proportions of the previous one from 1890 (11 metres high, 1.90 m wide).