Water played an important role in the past for the city of Edessa, as the water mills operated with the help of hydraulic power.
Hydropower is an inexhaustible, clean and renewable source of energy and has been used by humans for many years. Water falling from a height or flowing at high speed can turn large wheels that have fins around their circumference, the water turbines.
In the watermill, it is possible to replace the vanes with bottomed buckets, so that the water is trapped until it is emptied by the rotation, thus speeding up the movement due to the weight.
The water as it falls from the wooden channel (caruta), gives the necessary energy to rotate the wheel (wardrobe). The pair of gears 4 approximately doubles the revolutions and with the flat belt pulley the rotational motion is transmitted to the central spindle. From the spindle, the movement is simultaneously transferred to the millstones, and to the interior of the mill where the hold, the sieves, the trierie, the washing machine are located, as well as to the elevators that transport the wheat and flour. After the wheat is milled, the flour is sifted and placed in sacks.
Such a flour mill existed before 1901 in the area where the Outdoor Water Museum is today.
In the surviving building, there are parts of the watermill that have been preserved intact, while the part in front has been reconstructed.
The wooden house next to the mill was built later. On the ground floor of the stone building there are 3 pairs of millstones, the original large wooden container, the machine which cleans the flour, the washing machine, the conveyor belts and the hopper into which the sacks were emptied. In the northern part, the water supply points are visible.
Today, the reconstructed watermill hosts the activities of the student groups that visit the Edessa Environmental Education Center.
Editor: Fotini Anastasopoulou