Welcome to museum of a water mill of the XVIII century in agricultural settlement Zhodishki.
Agricultural settlement (Smorgon district in Grodno region) located in a picturesque place on the banks of the river Vilia. Zhodishki is known since the beginning of the XVI century. In 1774, the King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Stanislaw August Poniatowski, endowed Zhodishki with the Magdeburg Law.
The water mill was built in Jodishki in 1781 year, and in 1997, through the efforts of the director of OOO “FRA-MIL” Zhilko Franz Boleslavovich was restored and keep working till the present time – mill flour with millstones with the help of water. Until the end of the XIX century, at the mill grain had been miling to flour with a wooden wheel which had a diameter of 4 meters (it was restored) and at the end of the XIX century a turbine was installed (restored in 1996). At the moment, the mill in Zhodishki is the onlyoperating antique watermill on the territory of the Republic of Belarus. In the mill building are situated an ethnographic museum and a museum of grain and bread.
At the mill you will be shown and told about the most important of our showpieces – an operating water mill and an exposition of grain and bread.
Besides, You will get acquainted with agricultural appliances, crafts, pottery, smithcraft, woodworking, weaving, as well as with the peasants’ way of life (matulina hata). Most of the showpieces are in working order and can be used at present.
Each visitor is given a unique opportunity to grind grain to flour with his own hands, to make a pot of clay, to weave a canvas on a handloom (krosni).
At the end of the excursion after look-over the showpieces, You will see how actually the mill works: the grain is filling up the bunker on the third floor, flaps are opened on the lake and water is poured through the floodgate on the second floor of the mill: one flow of water goes to the turbine (it is situated inside the mill 4 meters below the lake level) and the second flow of water goes to the wheel situated outside the mill. Going downstairs to the first floor of the mill, you will have an opportunity to see, how flour is poured from millstones into sacks and going out into the courtyard you can see how the wooden a four meter diameter wheel rotates.
Visiting the museum of a water mill of the XVIII century in agricultural settlement Zhodishki will not leave anyone unmoved.
While visiting this unique object of cultural heritage in Smorgonskii district you can in earnest feel the ethos of ancientness by get acquainted with the age-old traditions of Belarusian folk.
Address: 231013, Republic of Belarus, Grodnenskii region, Smorgonskii district, agricultural settlement Zhodishki Str. Pervomaiskaya, 12B.
Coordinates of GPS: 54.620329, 26.447011
Contact telephone number: +375 29 364 05 83
Concerning excursions please refer to
Tsikoto Vladislav Boleslavovich.
Administration:
Executive Director of OOO “FRA-MIL” Zhilko Franz Boleslavovich
Contact telephone number: +375 29 619 64 72
Alternate Director Dudal Vitaliy Anatolyevich
Contact telephone number: +375 29 685 51 20
http://www.vadzianymlyn.by E-mail: vadzianymlyn@tut.by
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