Here’s a summary of the construction and history of Il-Mitħna tal-Mellieħa Windmill in Mellieha, Malta:
📍 Location
35.956673, 14.365110Quick summary
The Mellieħa windmill at/near Salib tal-Pellegrini is a traditional Maltese tower (round) windmill probably built in the early modern period (sources vary between 16th–17th century), used for grinding local grain, had its sails removed in the 20th century, and today is occupied by the restaurant Mithna / Il-Mitħna.
Construction & architecture
Type: tower / round mill — a cylindrical limestone tower sitting on a lower rectangular base that contained storage and the miller’s rooms. This is the common Maltese tower-mill form.
Materials & parts: built of local globigerina limestone, originally with a rotating timber cap, timber stocks and canvas/timber sails, a horizontal windshaft, gearing and one or more pairs of millstones inside the tower — the standard technology for Maltese windmills. (No published, detailed plan of this specific mill’s machinery was found online, so this description relies on typological comparison with surviving Maltese mills.)
Date of construction: sources differ: WindmillsOfMalta records this Mellieħa mill as built in the second half of the 17th century, while some restaurant/promotional pages describe it as “16th-century.” The conservative reading is late-16th to 17th-century (early modern) — fitted to the era when the Cottoner/Manoel foundations and local landlords commissioned multiple rural mills across Malta. Mark this as an area for archival confirmation.
Use & role
Primary function: grinding cereals (wheat, barley, corn) for the local community and parish — supplying flour and animal feed. Windmills in Mellieħa formed part of the island’s local food-processing network.
Economic/social role: mill rents and operations were often tied into local tenancies or larger charitable/military foundations (Cotoner/Manoel programmes elsewhere), so the mill would have been an important village resource and income source for whoever held its tenancy. Specific tenancy records for this mill would be in local archives.
Timeline & decline
Working life: the mill operated as a corn/grain mill through the 18th–19th centuries and into the early 20th century (exact end-date of commercial milling varies by source).
Sails removed: the widely-cited compiled list of Maltese windmills notes sails removed in 1938 for the “Windmill near Salib tal-Pellegrini.” That matches the general pattern across Malta where wind-powered mills lost commercial viability and had sails/caps removed in the late 19th–early 20th century.
Reuse / conversion: the tower and base survived and were later converted for non-industrial use; today it houses the restaurant Mithna / Il-Mitħna (listed in local restaurant directories and its own site).
Present condition & visiting
Survival: the masonry tower survives in the Mellieħa village streetscape near Salib tal-Pellegrini; the mill has been adapted internally for restaurant use and externally retains characteristic tower form though without sails.
Access: it is a private business (restaurant) — you can dine there and see the exterior form; there is no public museum interpretation on site (book or call the restaurant for any historic photos or details they may have).
