Windmills and watermills of Finland

Grain, wind and rapids

As late as the early 1900s, almost every Finnish village had a mill. Inland it stood in the rapids; on the coast and in Åland, on a windy hill. Mills disappeared within a couple of decades, once rapids were harnessed for electricity and flour began to be bought at the shop. A few hundred remain, some museums, some still turning. This map brings them together.

Two types of windmill

The post mill (harakkamylly) is the oldest type: the entire body of the mill stands on a central post and is turned into the wind with a long beam. It is small and light, which is why it looks like a magpie ("harakka") that has landed on a hill. The smock mill (mamsellimylly) is larger: the body is fixed, skirt-shaped and often octagonal, and only the cap, or top section, turns along with the sails. The name comes from the skirt shape, likened to a lady's dress. The Windmill Museum in Pälkäne and the Samppalinna mill in Turku are smock mills.

Windmills are most common in Ostrobothnia and Åland: the terrain is flat, there are no rapids, and the coast has steady wind. At Jan Karlsgården in Kastelholm, two mills from the 1700s and 1800s stand in the open-air museum's yard.

Watermills in the rapids

A watermill grinds with the power of the rapids, using either an upright wheel mill or a horizontal tub mill. The tub mill is the simplest: water turns a horizontal paddle wheel that shares its axle with the millstone. At the Vääksy watermill in Asikkala, two pairs of millstones still turn on a water turbine, and the same rapids produced the village's first electricity. At Kärnäkoski in Savitaipale, an 1830s mill and sawmill stand on the same rapids as a fortification from the Russo-Swedish War of 1788–90.

Shingle mills and other curiosities

A shingle mill doesn't grind grain but planes roof shingles from wood. One in Ohtolankylä, Virrat, is still in working order. The map also includes mill museums with grinding demonstrations, as well as mill ruins where only the foundation and dam remain.

Before you go

• Grinding demonstrations usually run on summer event days. Check the date on the site page or the museum's website.
• Don't touch a watermill's machinery: the gears and belts turn without guards.
• A windmill's sails are locked, but don't climb them. The stairs inside are steep and low.
• Many mills are looked after by a local village association and open only by arrangement. Contact details are on the site page.