Ta’ Kola Windmill

Imagine… A bright new morning with a favourable wind for a mill to be operated; the miller letting the locals know by blowing through a triton-shell; the villagers bringing their cereals to be ground into flour. Ta’ Kola Windmill is a unique relic of breadmaking in Gozo, transporting you right back to such a morning.

This is one of the few surviving windmills on the Maltese Islands dating from the Knights’ Period. The first windmill in Xagħra was built in 1725, funded by the Foundation of Grand Master Manoel de Vilhena. However, due to poor construction, it had to be dismantled and, a new windmill, today known as Ta’ Kola Windmill, was built on an alternative site in 1787.

The 300-year-old building is a living testimony to our forefathers’ way of life, marked with hardships and daily struggles. The windmill, much like the local parish church, was one of the main focal points of village life, providing the villagers with flour for the production of bread, the most stable and indispensable food item at the time.

Ta’ Kola Windmill’s construction follows a plan echoed in most Maltese windmills of the period, consisting of a number of rooms on two floors surrounding a central cylindrical stone tower. The latter houses the wooden milling mechanism that still incorporates the original circular grinding stones between which grain was crushed into flour.

The exhibits at Ta’ Kola, particularly those in the workshop, belonged to the last miller residing in this windmill and were used to operate and maintain the building and milling mechanism. The first floor is equipped with vernacular furniture meant to recreate a domestic dwelling, common in most local rural areas of centuries past. These rooms, though relatively small in size, were meant to accommodate the miller’s family, a common arrangement during the Knights’ and British periods.

The various items on display in these rooms all represent a trade, a tradition or a piece of local folklore and will most certainly arouse your curiosity and encourage you to delve deeper into their story and meaning.

FACILITIES AVAILABLE ON SITE

Gift Shop	Indoor / Outdoor Seating Area