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Traditional craft of Mallorca

Carboners and sitges (charcoal burners)

At a glance

The coaler converted oak wood into charcoal. He did it in the sitja: a pile of firewood covered in earth that burns slowly, with very little air. Wood loses…

Crafts
Traditional craft of Mallorca
Words
alzinar, badall, bessó, brasera, carboner, carretada
Coal workers' hut in the middle of a forest on the way to Puig Major
Coal workers' hut in the middle of a forest on the way to Puig Major — [Entre 1939 i 1959], Títol atorgat pel catalogador, Memòria Digital de Catalunya – Arxiu Fotogràfic del Centre Excursionista de Catalunya (afcecin)

What it is and technique

The coaler converted oak wood into charcoal. He did it in the sitja: a pile of firewood covered in earth that burns slowly, with very little air. Wood loses water and concentrates carbon (50% to 80%). Coal weighs less, heats more and does not rot: it was the energy of towns and cities.

Short story

  • 18th-20th centuries: family trade in the holm oak forests of the Tramuntana (to verify beginning).
  • The charcoal burner did not own the forest: he hired a ranxo (3-4 quarters) from the lord of the possessió.
  • 50s-60s: butane gas and oil enter kitchens; the job falls.
  • 1952: Toni Bosch Mas (Esporles) leaves to become a stonecutter.
  • 1968: last Sitja documented in Escorca.
  • 1989: Gabriel Valero, «Sitges i carboners».
  • 2018-2019: TFG by Joan Lluís Cañellas (UIB) with 13 interviews with coal workers.

Process step by step

1. Choose and cut: the master marked the cuttable oaks (thicker than an iron ring) to return at 7 years. Pieces of about 50 cm; The bark was removed (it was used for tanning).

2. Rotlo: circular cobbled platform (about 4.8 m in diameter in examples from Calvià), with air channels. On top, small stone and red clay.

3. Assemble the sitja: thick logs in the center; central hole (ull) as a chimney; firewood becoming thinner and thinner outwards, vertically.

4. Cover: bundles of reeds or branches (cokes) and a layer of two-fingered earth.

5. Light through the ull with dry branches (bessons) and feed (bessonar) up to six times a day.

6. Monitor day and night: open and close badalls (air holes) so that it cooks equally.

7. Cooking: about 8-10 days. The brazier at the base warns that it is cooked.

8. Sort the sitja: uncover, cool with sieved earth and classify the charcoal by size.

9. Bag in sàrries and go down by cart or donkey.

  • Season: April to September (Bosch); in Menorca, spring and autumn due to the risk of fire.

Forms and objects

  • Rotlo de sitja: circular stone platform (footprint left in the forest).
  • Carboner barracks: dry stone hut, almost round, one meter high; conical roof of logs and reeds; door looking at the sitja.
  • Sitja / sitjó: the pile of firewood.
  • Sàrria: esparto grass for charcoal.
  • Bridle paths that go down to the town.

Vocabulary

  • carboner: carbonero.
  • sitja: charcoal pile.
  • rotlo: sitja platform.
  • ranxo: leased forest plot.
  • ull: central chimney of the sitja.
  • coques: bundles of reeds or branches.
  • bessó: feed the sitja.
  • badall: shooting hole.
  • brasera: layer of thin branch at the base, cooking witness.
  • triar la sitja: extinguish and classify the charcoal.
  • sàrria: serón (1 sàrria = 8 arroves = 2 quintars).
  • quintar: 10.4 kg.
  • carretada: 8 sàrries.
  • alzinar: holm oak.

Geography

  • Holm oak forests of the Serra de Tramuntana (Esporles, Escorca, Bunyola, Calvià…).
  • Logic: hard oak wood + slope that is not suitable for farming + towns below that need fuel.
  • The sitges and barracks are among the human traces of the protected landscape of the Tramuntana.

Xifres

  • Performance: 2,500 kg of firewood about 500 kg of charcoal (Bosch).
  • A sitja 20 feet in diameter 60 quintars of coal (about 2,500 kg).
  • Cooking: 8-10 days.
  • Holm oak rotation: 7 years.
  • Without insular inventory of Sitges (per verify with the Consell).

Why is it design

  • Forest management: selective cutting and rotation = sustainability before the word.
  • Air engineering: channels, ulls and badalls control slow combustion.
  • Local proximity energy ( concept ).
  • Related: calciners-i-forns-de-calc , pedra-en-sec .

State

Context: extinct trade. Informative recreations and visible signs on Tramuntana routes.

For the project

  • Possible piece: the rotlo as a graphic form of the atlas; Local charcoal for drawing (majorcan oak charcoal).
  • Contact: Camp d'Aprenentatge Orient (teaching notebook); author of the UIB TFG.
  • Basic question: what was a forest managed by those who lived from it like?

Frequently asked questions

What is Carboners and sitges (charcoal burners)?

The coaler converted oak wood into charcoal. He did it in the sitja: a pile of firewood covered in earth that burns slowly, with very little air. Wood loses…

What are the traditional words for Carboners and sitges (charcoal burners)?

Some words: alzinar, badall, bessó, brasera, carboner, carretada, coques, quintar.

Sources

Working text from the Disseny Indígena knowledge base, machine-translated from Spanish.

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