Parco Naturale del Gran Bosco di Salbertrand

The history of Martinet watermill, from the milling feudal rights to the Town Electric Company of Salbertrand

In the territory of Salbertrand there are many traces of water factories, active until our mountains were cultivated and our villages were inhabited and lively: five flour mills along the same watercourse at Eclause, one mill – probably an oil mill – at Frenée, a mill with hemp press and vertical water wheel along torrent Gironda, in San Bernardo, and the important milling complex of Oulme, in loc. Faùria, at the mouth of Rio Secco, whose ruins are still evident and probably belonged to at least a mill, a hemp press, and a double trip hammer.

Probably the most ancient one – without a doubt the one which survived longer to modernity and the abandonment of agricultural activities – is Martinet mill, in the administrative center, near river Dora. Abandoned in the 1970s, its second life started in 1987 when it was granted in commodate by the Municipality of Salbertrand to Gran Bosco Park, the first step for a project of preservation and enhancement of the historical memory, life, material culture, and traditions of the Community of Salbertrand which, nine years later, will materialize in the creation of Colombano Romean Ecomuseum, work and traditions in Susa Upper Valley.

This cahier, written by many authors and result of a careful research activity, describes 800 years of water exploitation by the community of Salbertrand: from 1298 till present times, from the watermill with horizontal water wheel to the town electric company.

• Series: I Quaderni dell'Ecomuseo Colombano Romean - N° 16
• Author/s: Giuseppe Rey
• Publisher: Ecomuseo Colombano Romean
• Pages: 96
• Size: 16x23.5cm
• Year: 2011
• Price: 5.00 €