The Agricultural Museum - Mill of Bonis is an annex of the Folklore Museum of Mykonos. Located at Ano Myloi, it is an open-air museum that presents the traditional agricultural facilities used in Mykonos for the production and processing of agricultural products (threshing floor, oven, well, wine press, etc.), focusing on the old Mill of Boni, which is in full operation The Mill of Boni, is the best preserved example of the total of 28 known windmills that existed on the island during the Ottoman period and the 19th century and today functions as part of the Folklore Museum. It is a building of the 16th century in a three-story cylindrical stone-built and whitewashed building with a thatched roof.
The frequency of the winds favored the production and milling of cereals. They were processed by the miller, baked in ovens as nuts with which they supplied the passing ships by exchanging them for other items, bringing in duty-free income and contributing to the development of the island. The ground floor of the windmill was intended for gathering and weighing the sacks of grain and the middle floor for collecting the flour falling from the millstones. On the second floor is the grinding mechanism with the windmill, consisting of 12 wooden antennas with the same number of sails. In the vicinity of the windmill was the miller's house and the auxiliary premises. At the Agricultural Museum, every year, the "Harvest Festival" is celebrated, during which traditional dishes are baked in the oven and guests are entertained to the accompaniment of local music. The festivals are always accompanied by storytellers, whose narratives are a typical example of folk drama.
The Mill of Boni can be visited daily, 4.00 - 8.00 pm from July to September.
Editor: Fotini Anastasopoulou