Collecting groundwater has always been a priority in Mallorca, where water resources are scarce. For this reason, as we move away from the mountains, we find an abundant number of wells scattered all over the island, most of which are over 100 years old and some of which date back to the Muslim period. They were the source of life for those who lived outside the villages and also served to supply the livestock, the vegetable gardens and, in short, they were a source of survival.
Public wells and cisterns were always located next to the road or around population centres and were used to provide water for human consumption, watering animals, washing clothes in the basins or watering the threshing floor before beating the wheat, among other things. They were also used to drain water and prevent it from stagnating. Near these we could see all kinds of small crops for domestic consumption such as onions, chard, pumpkins, lettuce, spinach or fruit trees such as an apple tree, a plum tree, a laurel tree or a fig tree for shade.
We found different types of wells. There were the sweat wells, which were vertical wells that were dug until they reached the water table – an accumulation of underground water that is generally found at a shallow depth – and which were lined with stone walls to prevent them from collapsing. This allowed the water to “sweat” or slide down these walls. Vein wells, on the other hand, are identical to the previous ones, although the difference is that they were found thanks to the work of a water finder or dowser, who used pendulums, metallic or wooden rods with which he could indicate where the water was by capturing the energy generated in the subsoil. The ‘greixina’ wells, on the other hand, had a water flow from the filtration of the water through the earth. But not everyone could have a well at home, so the local authorities created more than two hundred public wells and cisterns, scattered all over the island but concentrated in the Pla de Mallorca. In the 19th century, new wells were drilled in Pòrtol, while most of the public wells in Raiguer were built. The 20th century saw the modernization of certain urban wells, such as those in Pòrtol and Sa Cabaneta, which were fitted with pumps to extract water. In the 1960s and 1970s, they fell into oblivion and this meant, in some cases, their disappearance.
In Marratxí there are a series of common or public wells such as Pou d’Es Coll and Pou de sa Plaça in Pòrtol; Sa sínia Vella, Pou d’Es Batlet and Pou de Ca’n Gros in sa Cabaneta and Sa Font in Marratxinet.
Finally, we must remember that there are many legends and traditions surrounding water. One of the best known is the legend of Maria Enganxa, a character represented by a water woman who came out with a hook and caught the most curious children who peeked into the wells.
