WINDMILL – Melenci

WINDMILL – Melenci

Bošnjak’s Windmill, also known as a wind-powered mill, was built in 1899 on the outskirts of the village, alongside the road to Bašaid. It was constructed using a combination of brick and adobe, in the shape of a truncated cone, with a conical roof covered in wooden shingles. A massive shaft with sails designed to catch the wind once passed through the movable roof, which could be turned to face the wind. The wind also powered the mill’s machinery.

The sails are now missing, and the wooden mechanism has suffered considerable damage. The interior is divided into a ground floor, two upper floors and an attic, all connected by an internal staircase. The structure of the milling mechanism was located in the attic and on the top floor, while the first floor housed three pairs of millstones used for grinding grain. The ground floor contained the same number of storage bins, into which the flour was channelled through wooden chutes.

The windmill closely resembles those in Čurug and Belo Blato and represents a rare surviving example of what was once a widespread type of structure. Although the Provincial Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments completely restored the windmill building in 1971, with the exception of certain parts of the milling mechanism, the structure suffered considerable deterioration after more than thirty years of disuse. There was a risk of its complete collapse, making urgent conservation work necessary to stabilise the structure and restore the damaged sections.

The Institute for the Protection of Cultural Monuments in Zrenjanin prepared the technical design and project documentation for the reconstruction and structural stabilisation of the building. On the basis of this documentation, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia approved funding for the works. The restoration was carried out in 2007 in two phases. The first phase involved the repair and stabilisation of the foundations and walls, while the second focused on the roof structure, including the installation of new wooden shingles. These works prevented the collapse of this rare example of traditional vernacular architecture.

Note: The windmill is not open to visitors.

Bibliography: M. Đekić, ‘Problems in the Protection of Vernacular Architecture in Vojvodina’, Materials for the Study of Cultural Monuments of Vojvodina, Vol. XVII (Novi Sad, 1994).

Source: www.dvorci.info

Attractions

All attractions