Moulin de la Siagnole, Watermill in Mons, France.
Moulin de la Siagnole is a watermill in Mons with two separate work areas: one for grinding grain with two sets of stones, and another for pressing olives with four mechanical presses. Water flows through a 250-meter channel to power a large wheel that drives both operations.
The mill is first recorded in 1551 when it was transferred to the Mons community as a shared resource. From that point, it served the local population through centuries of grain grinding and olive pressing.
The mill demonstrates how people in this region traditionally processed grain and olives using water power. The way it was built and used shows the craft skills that local communities relied on for centuries.
The mill opens to visitors during the annual Country Heritage and Mills Days celebration held in mid-June. This is when the equipment operates and you can watch the mechanisms in action.
The mill uses a Francis turbine made by the Dumont company, a piece of engineering equipment installed when mills were being modernized in the 1800s. This addition shows how traditional water-powered systems were upgraded to increase their efficiency.
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