El Motor de Sant Pere

A tiled panel showing Sant Pere with the date 1916 watches over the entrance to the Motor de Sant Pere, the pumping station of the irrigation community of Canet d'en Berenguer. That year saw the founding of the Agricultural Syndicate it grew out of, with one clear aim: to draw water from underground and share it out in an orderly way across the fields.

What survives

Unlike many structures of its age, the Motor is still in use and in very good shape. The site keeps three elements that read well together:

• The ceramic panel of Sant Pere, bearing the founding date of 1916.
• The valve house, with a staircase down to the underground catchment cistern.
• The old engine-keeper's dwelling, where the worker lived to keep the machine running.

The setting

This is working water, not a museum: the Motor tells how irrigation was organised in the Camp de Morvedre in the early 20th century, when farming depended on pumping up every drop. Together with the Molí i el Vapor de l'Hort del Molí it makes a small water trail, a different kind of visit for anyone who already knows Canet beach.