The water also had a built path
A levada isn't always a stone-cut channel.
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According to the Museum, the levadas lead the water from the dams or from the puddles to the mills. In Cabeceiras, the study describes both granite channels worked as well as streams on firm terrain or dug in the rock. To perceive a mill, it is important to look at the set: building, capture and conduction of the water. It is an explanation of the documented heritage, not an indication of access to the canals.
The materials also tell what has changed. The article of 2011 mentions reconstructions in cement or fiber cement that altered the original configuration of some levadas. Distinguishing the old form of later interventions helps to read this heritage as a history of adaptations, not as a landscape that stood still in time.
Source and context
Basto Land Museum — Mills of Cabeceiras de Basto: water capture and conduction, 07/07/2011
Accessed: . Editorial summary; the date of consultation is not the date of the facts.