There is certainly a widespread appearance of windmill imagery in Latvia, with images of windmills appearing in significant numbers on
products in the supermarket. These include a popular dairy brand, whose extensive range includes everyday staples
such as milk and butter, through to yogurt, milk puddings, soft and hard cheeses. Windmill images also appear widely on bread
and cereals, with other food and drink products also displaying them - sometimes accurately, or sometime in cartoon form.
Interestingly there does not seem to be any use of watermill imagery on products.
Its quite surprising therefore that there are so few windmill remains around. In the open air museum in the capital, Riga,
there are in fact 4 reconstructed windmills (and long standing plans to reerect a watermill when funds can be found),
but this is a unique concentration. A few other mills are spread around the countryside, but in very small numbers.
Of passing interest, if only because it is hard to miss, is the huge mock mill attached to a log cabin constructed in 1987
by the Lido restaurant chain on the outskirts of Riga, as part of their themed entertainment centre.
[Map/Aerial Image]
mock
- Mock mill - part of a restaurant, built on the corner of a large log cabin
The Lido Atputas Centre is an amusement park centred on a large log cabin housing a Latvian themed buffet restaurant.
In one corner of the restaurant is a mock windmill, whose sails rotate by motor (they would have to -
there is no twist to them at all). The interior of the mill tower is bare - simply part of the restaurant,
though there are a number of (seemingly authentic) millstones in various places around the complex.
The restaurant also brews its own beer from a brewery in the basement,
but take-outs in a "souvenir" bottle are expensive (3.90 Lats)
The windmill logo appears on a number of other themed souvenirs - including chocolate and postcards.
[Homepage]
[Map/Aerial Image]
Drabesi windmill:
tower
- Tower mill, date stone 1852, reconstructed 1982-84, 4 sails
Taken from the description in the European Heritage Days 2005 publication "100 best preserved buildings in Latvia":
Drabesi windmill (built 1852) belongs to the so-called Dutch type and features a fixed tower with an adjustable cap,
which could be turned against wind by means of a special mechanism from outside the building. The windmill is a
former property of Drabesi manor. It was later acquired by the Guaja National Park, and subsequently renovated.
The 4 floors of the windmill feature grinding equipment and mechanisms, as well as providing interesting cultural
and historical information.
[info]
[photo]
[photo]
[Mills Database entry]
Vidzeme
Lizums
tower
- Interior machinery gone, but used as a museum of local personalities
[info]
[photo]
[photo]
Unknown region
Jekabpils
Sunkaste windmill:
in the open air museum, 6 Filizofu Street
[info]
Senas Vejdzirnavas, R. Purins, Riga 1987
134pp paperback - illustrated
(Outside the ISBN system)
Latvijas Dzirnavas, Arno Teivens, Stockholm 1985
91-970758-1-7
hardback, illustrated 298pp
Summary in English, and in German
p122-158 form chapter on windmills
Latvijas industriala mantojuma celvedis (Guide to the Industrial Heritage of Latvia ), Andris Biedrins, Riga, 2002, 107pp
TIMS 8th symposium - carries a paper on "Windmills in Latvia"
International Molinology No.67 - Mills of the Baltic States, Dec 2003.
