Gozo Windmill

Ta’ Kola Windmill is one of Gozo’s few surviving windmills. Located close to Ggantija Temples in Xaghra, its origins go back to Gozo under the Knights during the magistracy of Grand Master Manoel de Vilhena (1722-36). It had to be dismantled and rebuilt in the 1780s as the original construction used bad quality stone and mortar.

The windmill’s name Ta’ Kola is connected with the last miller, Ġuzeppi Grech who was popularly known as Żeppu ta’ Kola or Joseph, the son of Nikola.
Apart from operating the windmill, the miller probably had several other jobs to keep himself busy during times of bad weather. When the wind was favourable, the miller would let the locals know by blowing through a triton-shell (Maltese bronja) and villagers would then bring their cereals to be ground into flour.

Its construction follows a plan which is echoed in most Maltese windmills of the period and consists of a number of rooms on two floors surrounding the centrally-placed cylindrical stone tower. This tower houses the milling mechanism which consists of two circular hard-wearing stones placed on top of each other to crush the grain forced between the two rotating surfaces.A
The ground floor of the windmill holds the workshop which contains a vast array of tools, some of which were originally manufactured by the owners of the mill.

On the first floor, the living quarters of the miller including the kitchen, dining room and bedrooms, have been recreated using traditional furniture and items related to Gozitan crafts. The kitchen is equipped with traditional utensils and cooking ware which are rare nowadays.