Windmills of the Maltese Islands

A brief outline of the Windmills

There have been a lot of windmills on Malta and on Gozo. At least 69 stone windmills. Almost all the windmills were grain mills. There were about 56 on Malta and 22 on Gozo. Only 3 of these mills still have sails. Before the windmills there were postmills. Already in 1530 there was a postmill on Malta and in 1565 two. Those were postmills in what now is Senglea. The technology was introduced by the Knight of St John from Rhodes, which they had occupied from 1309 to 1523. A postmill is a type of windmill in which the whole body (the millhouse containing the machinery) is mounted on a single central vertical post, around which the body can rotate to bring the sails into the wind. There were two of these in Malta built in 1530 and 1565 although details are sparse

Windmills of Gozo

Windmills of Malta

A windmill built in the 1700s typically reflects the robust, functional architecture of the early modern period, designed to harness wind power for essential milling work. Constructed from thick, locally quarried stone, these towers were built to withstand both time and the coastal winds that powered them. Most featured a cylindrical or slightly tapered structure, topped with a rotating wooden cap that allowed the sails to be turned into the wind. Inside, multiple levels housed heavy milling machinery—stone grinding wheels, wooden gears, and storage space for grain and flour. Operated by skilled millers who relied on wind direction and seasonal rhythms, 18th-century windmills were vital to rural communities, providing a reliable means of producing flour long before industrialized mills emerged. Today, surviving examples stand as remarkable testimonies to early engineering and the agricultural heritage of the period.