The Bulgarian for windmill is вятърна мелница which transliterates as vyatarna melnitsa.
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.
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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]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]6 sailed
No evidence for this but for the painting on Panoramio
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 tressle). 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. [photo] [info]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]set of solid sails on topmost square tower of residential block
Recently constructed (circa 2009) and not yet fully occupied. Multi use building, but mostly a block of apartments.
Mock mill facade attached to front of restaurant - which also has a waterwheel for extra effect!
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.
| Last updated 27/07/2020 | Text and images © Mark Berry, 1997-2020 - |
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