Gandarês Mill of Santo António

Rotating wooden windmill, Gandaresa type, one of the only working windmills in the district of Aveiro.

This windmill was donated by its owners to the Santo António de Vagos Folk Group, which installed it in the museum space of Casa Gandaresa.

This windmill belongs to a type that was very common in the Gandaresa landscape of yesteryear, commonly known as a “Jewish windmill.” These were windmills that belonged to farmers who built them to grind their own grain.

It is a windmill with a very simple wooden structure and zinc roof, set on a circular base, on which the wheels that make it turn move, hence the name “rotating mill.” Its shape is apparently triangular, being slightly rounded on the side where the access door to the interior is located.

Of the interior mechanism, we highlight the wooden gear whose teeth drive a metal wheel, the pair of millstones, and the hopper, also called a “trough,” from which the grain falls onto the millstone. The flour falls into a wooden box.

On the outside, you can see the sail, composed of four triangular sails made of white canvas.

It is currently the only functioning windmill in the district of Aveiro, along with the Ti Pascoal Mill.