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World Monuments Fund
But while Don Quixote looked upon windmills and saw giants, Don Bernardo Rabasa sees them as a vanishing national treasure. Rabasa is president of The Friends of the Windmills Association, an activist group dedicated to the restoration and preservation of antique windmills on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca, 150 miles off the Spainsh mainland. Rabasa says that so far his group has identified and catalogued the remains of close to 900 molinos, or windmills, which were placed on the World Monuments Fund list of endangered sites a year ago.
Drawing crowds has never been a problem at Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado, another site on the World Monuments endangered list. Nearly three-quarters of a million tourists flock here every year to visit the park's 800-year-old Native American cliff dwellings. Mesa Verde is one of about a dozen U.S. monuments on the list. Others include San Franciso's Golden Gate Park and New York harbor's Ellis Island. Ancient pueblo Indians used sandstone and mortar to create these impressive, apartment-like complexes in alcoves hundreds of feet above the canyon floor, for reasons that still elude historians. Some, like the 150-room Cliff Palace, resemble small cities, with towers, alleyways, courtyards, and ceremonial spaces. Though not all of them inhabited the cliffs, a population of around 5000 people thrived here during what was the Middle Ages in western Europe, growing corn, beans and squash on the mesa tops and hunting for game in the canyons. Then, around A.D. 1300, they abandoned their cliffside homes, again for reasons that remain a mystery, although many theorize it was because of drought.They migrated south to the four corners region, where Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico meet and where many of their descendents, the Hopi, Zuni and other tribes, still live today.
To reduce the impact of visitors, park officials have limited access to the dwellings in recent years. However, it's nature that poses a greater threat to Mesa Verde. Archaeologist Linda Towle is the park's chief of research.
Towle says it's a testament to the ingenuity and skill of the people who built these dwellings that they're still standing at all after 800 years, yet she's not surprised that they're deteriorating.
Some attempts to stabilize the walls over the years have succeeded. Others have resulted in even more damage. The most recent campaign involves documenting of every square inch of the more prominent ruins and making repairs with plaster similar in composition to the original. But this program requires money and the park is short of funds and manpower. Fifty thousand dollars from the World Monuments Fund, together with grants from other sources, has provided some relief but park officials say ongoing support is needed to maintain the historic buildings here.
At Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, I'm Tom Verde for The Savvy Traveler. For More Information:
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It's hard to imagine the Spanish countryside, and not picture its
windmills. These romantic structures with their conical roofs and canvas
sails have been cultural icons ever since Miguel de Cervantes immortalized
them in his epic novel, Don Quixote de La Mancha.
Heavy chains inside the mills regulate the speed and direction of the sails
which can move hard and fast enough to kill a man. There are two types of
windmills on Mallorca: square buildings topped by pinwheels that pump
water and classic flour mills, round stone towers, some dating back
to the 14th century, with revolving roofs and six sails as opposed to the
usual four, a unique feature of Mallorca's molinos. Lack of use, and
therefore lack of maintenance have led to the deterioration of many of
Mallorca's windmills. But in the past two years, Rabasa's group has managed
to raise enough public and private funds to preserve some 50 water mills as
well as four flour mills.
A $50,000 grant from the World Monuments Fund, says Rabasa, will be used to
restore a prominent windmill overlooking the Bay of Palma, Mallorca's
capital city. Another dream is to open a museum in one of the restored
flour mills dedicated to the history of Mallorca's windmills. For that to
happen, says Rabasa, the group will have to raise at least another
$350,000. Yet should they succeed, many feel that the new breed of cultural
tourists, those interested in more than Mallorca's famous sand and surf,
could provide continued support.
Yet short of sending a check, the World Monuments Fund recommends other
ways tourists can help preserve Mesa Verde, Mallorca's windmills and the
dozens of other architectural treasures on the list. Fewer visitors, of
course, would help take some of the pressure off...and by making the
effort to see less popular sites off the beaten path, so-called responsible
tourists actually have the opportunity to see and do more on their
vacations, while at the same time leaving less of a footprint behind.
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