Dutch mill in Palczewo, a windmill in the Pomeranian Voivodeship
The Dutch mill in Palczewo is a smock mill built around 1800 on an earthen mound with a drive-through passage. Its lower octagonal storey is brick, while the upper storeys are timber-framed and clad in shingles. A gallery runs between the brick and wooden walls, and the tower has five storeys plus an attic.
The mill was built around 1800 in the eastern part of Palczewo as a grain windmill, erected by Dutch Mennonites known locally as Olędrzy. It was already considered a technological monument before World War II, was nationalised after the war and remained in use until 1958. Listed in the monument register since 1956, it was handed to private owners in the 1960s because the commune could not fund repairs.
The name refers to the Dutch Mennonites, called Olędrzy locally, who built the mill around 1800; it is the only surviving grain mill of this kind in the Żuławy Wiślane delta. The tower's gallery let the miller reach the sails, and one pair worked on a sail-and-cloth system while the other used shutters adjustable from inside.
The mill stands on an earthen mound in the eastern part of Palczewo, with a drive-through passage beneath the building. It is about 25 km southeast of Gdańsk, near the Vistula, opposite the Kociewie region. The structure is closed to visitors and only secured from outside; the sails have never been restored, so the site is best viewed from the surrounding ground.
The sails can rotate to catch the wind from any direction, while the internal layout allowed grain to be processed across multiple floors simultaneously. This design system was typical of Dutch mill engineering and remains visibly intact.
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