The Old Windmill in Nessebar (Bulgaria) - Windmills on Waymarking.com

"The Old Windmill on the passageway from New Nessebar to Old Nessebar is a lovely, very intact Black Sea style wildmill.

It is virtually impossible to dig up any material about the history of the windmill, as all local sources quote almost all their information verbatim from one very popular guide book, which mentions the windmill but contains no information about it. It's a fair guess that it's from the Bulgarian revival period from the 17th to the 19th century.

The type of construction is a rather rough, basic style. No nice little details here, the design is meant to harness the sometimes fierce power of the wind at the Black Sea coast, and transfer the wind power down to the milling area inside the windmill.

The main axis from the wings into the mill give you some idea what kind of force we are dealing with here. When the sails are strapped onto the wings, the load on the axis is considerable.

The windmill base reveals a wooden guiderail and direct wood-to-wood contact. Considering the dryness of the area this is a bit surprising, as the friction between windmill and guiderail will create considerable heat whenever the mill is turned. Is this because metal was too expensive or impossible to get? Is the windmill rarely turned, because the wind direction is very stable? Some kind of lubricant was probably used when turning the mill, or it would be a very difficult job.

The side view of the windmill gives a good view of the three dimensional design used between axis and wings. The axis is prolonged out front and used to support the chains that go out to each wing in support, so they can better withstand the force of the wind. The design is somewhat similar to Greek windmills, which is probably not without reason, considering the history of the Bulgarian Black Sea coast with centuries of Greek presence."

(Source: visitnessebar.info and Wikipedia)

Purpose: Milling Open to the public: no Is This Windmill Functional?: No Windmill Farm: no Museum on Site: no Date of Manufacture: Not listed Cost: Not Listed

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