Windmills of Rhodes

A study made in 1992

Although seemingly unrelated to Dorset windmills, these windmills have a number of features in common with the Portland (Easton) tower mills. The writer believes that the Portland stone tower mills were influenced by technology perhaps brought via trading or by someone from the Mediterranean area.

An extract of this research was published as an article in The International Molinological Society (TIMS) Pub 56 - (July 1998) following a holiday on the island in 1992 during which a brief study of the windmills was made including a full measured survey of one almost intact windmill at Vation.

Some Windmills of the Island of Rhodes, Greece by Richard Crumbleholme (published in The International Molinological Society (TIMS ) (Ref : IM1998 56 : 11-17)

I have been researching two old stone tower windmills on the Isle of Portland near my home in Weymouth, Dorset, UK for a number of years. They ceased working in the late 1890's but the stone towers are still in fair condition with the old oak windshaft and one sailstock from the north mill in the nearby museum. The mills are recorded in a land revenue account of 1608 appear to be the among the earliest surviving windmill towers in Britain perhaps predating this earliest record by up to a century. The stone towers are parallel sided and are of the typical Southern Mediterranean type.

By chance, a visit to the island of Rhodes in 1992 allowed me to study this type of windmill at first hand. With the inevitable spread of mass tourism, the former way of island life is changing and the once common windmills or Anemomili are fast disappearing and deteriorating. Due to limited time, only a brief survey of the windmills easily accessible by road was possible. However, one particular almost intact windmill in the south east of the island was surveyed in greater detail.

This survey has been of great assistance in formulating a conjectural reconstruction of the Portland mill, both having a single pair of overdriven stones, all timber components and of almost identical size. In many ways, the

Rhodes mill design is more refined, due probably to being one of many similar windmills on a relatively small island. The two Portland windmills on the other hand were fairly unique to their area as to date only approximately 40 windmills are known to have existed in Dorset, many were of early date and the majority known to be timber post mills.

The island of Rhodes is the largest of the Dodecanese group in the Aegean Sea and throughout its history has played an important role as a strategic base in the eastern Mediterranean. It apperas that the European Crusaders initially took small timber post mills with them to the Holy Land. In Europe, these early post mills were simple machines which were dismantled and rebuilt often as a result of fierce arguments due to wind energy being harnessed in opposition to long established watermill rights.

It is quite possible that the still emerging technologies of the European allies were pooled on Rhodes but were forced to compromise over the shortage of indigenous timber. Stone tower mills had appeared in Europe in the late 13th century. Stone was readily available and used in massive quantities for the fortifications whose walls often incorporated windmills to provide integral milling facilities. Stone towered mills would have been far less vulnerable to attack than fragile timber post mills. With fairly constant wind available in Rhodes, windmills offered an ideal solution to milling corn on a large scale at this medieval military base.

Above : Rhodes harbour - an engraving by Breydenbach (published in 1502)

Left : Thirteen more "Miles on the Mole" (ie Mills on the jetty (mole)) From a copperplate engraving by Bernhard von Breydenbach - in his "Saintes peregrinations be Hiveruselem". Published in Lyons in 1488.

Although fixed direction horseshoe shaped Monopatos and Taralis horizontal and vertical types of windmill existed on many Greek islands, the classic southern Mediterranean type of tower windmill known as a Xetroharis emerged as the common windmill throughout the Aegean.

However on Rhodes, these primitive windmills with a single pair of overdriven millstones and cylindrical stone tower evolved with a distinctive type of rotating timber cap. Below the conical roof, the cap has a skirt of vertical timber boarding enclosing a cylindrical casing, the whole cap turning on rebated timber kerbs. Internally, this enlarged cap houses the windshaft and an additional gallery type of floor from where the grain hopper is filled and the cap is turned to the wind by means pegs and levers. Unlike most small tower mills, this arrangement gives the miller a fairly spacious, light & relatively safe working area.

Where greater capacity was required, multiple mills were built which also allowed for stone recutting and other maintenance works to be accommodated. Earth tremors, which are fairly frequent in the area, caused fracturing of the towers which no doubt caused some mills to be abandoned. It would appear that many of the windmills were owned by the church and were named after Saints. Some of the surviving windmills, although of primitive form, may have only been built fairly recently in the last century and certainly many remained in use well into the 20th century.

The situation today, many years after my visit, is likely to be very grim indeed and I fear for the survival of these unique windmills. Copies of my detailed survey have been lodged with the museum in Rhodes Town and TIMS.

Some Windmill Locations on the Island of Rhodes (at 1992)

The locations listed below are only those that were visible and accessible from the roads on the island. There were certainly many further windmills and sadly others have doubtless already disappeared without trace in the face of modern developments.

a) Gennadi : There are a group of three windmills on the coastal side of the main road just outside the village. The central tower has been converted into a dwelling, the other towers are in an advanced state of decay having lost their roofs and most of the internal components are in poor condition. The south tower is in slightly better shape and was surveyed in greater detail. Although narrower than the Rhodes Town mills, they are very similar in size and form to the nearby Vation mill. (see photo 2 below)

b) Hohlakas : To the east of this village on the road junction to Plimmiri, two mills exist. One has been converted, the other is in the same sad condition as the Gennadi mills.

c) Lindos : The remains of a windmill tower still exists on the northern side of the bay opposite the village and the famous Acropolis. (Please use this link for photographs that I received of this mill in May 2022 and also a windmill near Katavia in the south of the island.)

d) Paradision : Several windmill tower ruins remain here on the seaward side of the International Airport. One is visible when landing by plane, but with its roof gone, the exposed windshaft, main wheel and kerbs are all in an advanced state of decay.

e) Rhodes Town : Early maps and a famous 1486 woodcut show some 18 stone tower mills located around the harbour used to grind corn for export. The most famous 3 mills on the whole island are located on akti boubouli on the east mole of Mandraki harbour. Although widely featured on postcards, they are now sadly in poor shape. All have lost their sail spars & it would appear that the windshafts & cap roofs are poor modern mock replacements. (see photo 1 below)

A further five mills overlook the main beach on the north side of the town. Some have been converted into houses whilst the rest are merely shells with mock roofs. There were once windmills on the old fortified city walls

especially in the English sector.

f) Trianta : On the north coast between Rhodes Town and the airport at Paradison, this village is now all part of continuous urban development. There was a windmill here in 19742 but was not located during my brief search.

g) Vation : This small village in the southern central area of the island is located centrally in a large valley plain some 7 km inland from the eastern coastline. The main road, just to the north of the village runs in a north westerly direction up the valley from the coast.. It has two stone tower windmills although the mill to the north of the village is a complete ruin. However, the south mill was almost intact in June 1992 with only some minor timber decay due to missing cap skirt boarding. It had no sail spars but the internal components were still in good order. A detailed measured survey was made.

Isle of Simi : In 1992, there were a number of intact windmills on the nearby Isle of Simi (see photos 3 & 4 below)

Above : 1) : Rhodes Town Harbour mills (sadly all modern replicas); 2) : Gennadi mills; 3) : Mills on ridge above Simi Town (Isle of Simi - near Rhodes)

4) : A mill (intact 1992) on cove headland at Panormitis (isle of Simi)

The South Windmill at Vation

Location : The surviving mill, sited on a small ridge to the south of the village, now has little evidence of any an access trackway. Whilst the present rather awkward climb up through the dense gorse has probably helped to

preserve the mill, there must have been at least a mule track in the past. Being sited on a small ridge, there is no mill mound or platform surrounding the tower.

History : No information was available on the site apart from some early 20th century pencil calculations and dates made presumably by past millers. Sadly some modern graffiti exists. The mill also surveyed at nearby Gennadi appears to be identical in many respects and suggests that these mills were all constructed in the same" tradition" perhaps even by the same group of craftsmen.

Two of the mills at Gennadi have motif plaques dated 1926. This would seem to indicate the date of the last refurbishment during the interwar years when Rhodes was in Italian occupation. The Vation mill has a simple cross motif but this is undated. The original construction date is unknown but it would not seem unreasonable to assume a reasonably early date bearing in mind the 15th century dating of the mills in Rhodes Town. This mill may have been built on the site of an earlier even more primitive one. Whether any records were kept of village activities during the long Turkish occupation is unknown.

Construction : The mill is extremely well built with granite like stonework tower. The construction and jointing techniques of the timber cap, circular rebated kerbs, windshaft and other internal components exhibiting a high degree of carpentry skill.