Windmills of Bulgaria 🌍


The Bulgarian for windmill is вятърна мелница which transliterates as vyatarna melnitsa.

Belintsi (#bg6)

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(43.65431,26.9549)


Map/aerial photo of the area around the mill

post mill

6 sailed

[info] [photos] [info] [photo]

Nessebar (#bg1)

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(42.65958,27.7281)


Map/aerial photo of the area around the mill

post mill - restored, with sailbars

There has been a mill on this site for at least 100 years, though the current one looks as if it contains little of the historical original mill. All externally visible timbers are machine sawn, and bolted together.

[photos] [photo] [photo] [photo] [photo]

[3D model]

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Nessebar (#bg2)

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(42.66123,27.7377)


Map/aerial photo of the area around the mill

tower mill - partly ruined tower

Vertical sided tower. Labelled as a windmill on several tourist maps, and local artists sometimes produce paintings of the town where they add sails to it, but evidence on site of it actually being a windmill is thin. Lonely Planet guide book simply describes it as a fortified tower.

[photos]

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Nessebar (#bg3)

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(42.65956,27.7244)


Map/aerial photo of the area around the mill

Hotel Menambriya: tower mill - the "restored" mill (including sails) has been totally enveloped by the hotel buildings, including from above.

The mill was well restored, and a number of postcards available around town show it in isolation in this state. Unfortunately that didn't stop the property developers, who built a hotel attached to and totally enveloping it. The hotel opened circa 2006. The mill sails have been cut asymmetrically to avoid the attached building, and although the tower walls form a corridor wall in the hotel, there does not appear to be any public access to the interior of the mill. The cap finial is well weathered, and may be original, but most of the rest of the cap is now made of random wood offcuts.

[photo] [info] [photo]

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Pravda (#bg9)

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(43.87989,27.0006)


Map/aerial photo of the area around the mill

post mill

6 sailed

No evidence for this but for the painting on Panoramio

Sozopol (#bg4)

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(42.42629,27.6970)


Map/aerial photo of the area around the mill

Windmill restaurant:

Possibly a mock mill, but appears likely to have been built on the site of a real earlier mill. Restaurant wall caries a 1973 datestone, which is probably the date of whole restaurant construction, including the mill building. The mill building consists of a conical stone roundhouse (in which an archway gives access to the interior, which houses a restaurant table, but not the expected post and trestle). The mill body appears to be mounted on many wooden rollers, but it looks oversized, and is certainly now fixed in position by access steps etc. Whilst appearing to be a wooden framed body, beneath the weatherboarding, the walls seem to be brick built. It is difficult to see the sails, since they face out to sea, at the top of the cliff.

A mini model mill is mounted on the restaurant wall, and serves as the symbol of the restaurant. This has 4 solid sails.

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Sunrise (#bg7)

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post mill

6 sailed

[info]

Varna (#bg8)

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(43.22568,27.9085)


Map/aerial photo of the area around the mill

tower mill

Have seen a photo where "sails" sprout from the walls, not from the cap, which was possibly just some "window dressing". When inspected in late summer 2009, these had been removed.

[photo]

Venets (#bg5)

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(43.54250,26.9232)


Map/aerial photo of the area around the mill

post mill

6 sailed

[photos]


Mock Mills

Avren (#bgmock1)

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Newly built and for sale in 2009

[homepage]

Golden Sands (#bgmock2)

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Gorna Malina (#bgmock10)

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(42.70015,23.6905)


Map/aerial photo of the area around the mill

Windmills Hydropark:

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Harmanite Beach (#bgmock7)

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(42.41396,27.6991)


Map/aerial photo of the area around the mill

set of solid sails on topmost square tower of residential block

Nessebar (#bgmock5)

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(42.66030,27.7226)


Map/aerial photo of the area around the mill

windmill sails attached to face of stone tower

Recently constructed (circa 2009) and not yet fully occupied. Multi use building, but mostly a block of apartments.

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Nessebar (#bgmock6)

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(42.65971,27.7340)


Map/aerial photo of the area around the mill

Old Mill restaurant:

Mock mill facade attached to front of restaurant - which also has a waterwheel for extra effect!

Odrintsi (#bgmock4)

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(43.53483,27.7057)


Map/aerial photo of the area around the mill

wall post made to resemble windmill

Sozopol (#bgmock3)

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(42.41914,27.6954)


Map/aerial photo of the area around the mill

No more (or less) authentic looking than the other Sozopol mill. Run as a bar/restaurant. The are no rollers visible for where the roundhouse meets the body.

Sunny Beach (#bgmock8)

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(42.67338,27.7110)


Map/aerial photo of the area around the mill

El Greco: Oversized model feature for Greek restaurant

[photos]

Sunny Beach (#bgmock9)

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(42.71099,27.7260)


Map/aerial photo of the area around the mill

Vyaturna melnitsa: - restaurant

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Sozopol (#bg10)

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