The windmills and millers of Gozo past

Abstract

The skyline of Xaghra, one of the oldest as well as one of the largest villages of Gozo, has for the past 270 years been dominated by ii-Mitlina ta' Kola, the Windmill of Kola, which has defied the march of times and the substitution of wind power by steam and electricity and still stands as a monument to the hard working millers of past and recent times. Windmills, like watermills, were among the original prime movers that replaced animal muscle as a source of power. They were used for centuries in various parts of the world, converting the energy of wind into mechanical energy for grinding corn and other uses. The so-called tower mills, as the one in Xaghra, were first developed in France in the early fourteenth century and thence spread rapidly throughout Europe. [excerpt]