Windmills of Central Europe and beyond

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Authors & editors	Bignell, Bill [Author]
Publisher	Saron Publishers, Monmouthshire
Year of publication	2022
Languages	English (main text)
Medium	Book
Edition	1
ISBN	9781913297299
Topics	Wind & watermills > Other Europe (not GB) > Eastern Europe
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Scope & content	Publisher: When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, the scene was set for the decline and eventual disappearance Communism across most of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. With this enormous shift in European politics cam opportunities, untrammelled now by bureaucratic interference, for visiting countries that had been all but closed to foreigners. Curious westerners were understandably keen to take advantage of this access to the East, and among the many aspects of life peculiar to the states of the old Eastern Bloc now open to scrutiny was the legacy of industrial practices, by now long out of fashion in the West but which had lingered in the East. At the lighter end of the scale for industrial buildings, still then much in evidence in Central Europe, lay traditional mills - both windmills and watermills. In taking the windmill as its chosen subject, this book offers us a visual chronicle for the fate of a random sample of such mills seen across Central Europe in the years directly after 1989. It builds upon the local knowledge gathered by intrepid travellers long before that pivotal year and hopes to facilitate our appreciation today of this singular feature of European industrial heritage.