Water Mill on the Zhuzha Rivulet

The Water Mill stands in the northern part of the museum-reserve. It was built in 2007 of larchwood logs, after an original from Eastern Siberia (village of Vladimirovka, Irkutsk region). A special dam was constructed on the rivulet to make it work.

The water mill works the following way: the wheel powered by a water stream rotates and puts into motion the millstones that grind the grains into flour. The flour then comes via a groove into a chest from which it can be poured into a sack with a shovel.

The log mill building has two storeys. On the lower one, there were milling premises and a space for the peasants to wait. The upper one served as the granary. Here the grain was poured from the sacks into a bucket to be made into flour.

The Watermill is open only in the warm season from May 15 to September 29.

A permanent exhibition inside the mill shows items once used to produce, process and store flour. You will see a chest, a pouring shovel, yoke-shaped scales, a basten sieve and riddle, wicker Birchbark containers (tues’es) and bags (kuzov’s).

At the exhibition, you will learn:

• how the water mill works – principles and technologies;
• how peasants used to pay the miller;
• what the difference was between ‘sieve bread’ and ‘riddle bread’.

To learn more about the Water Mill on the Zhuzha Rivulet, you can:

• visit the permanent exhibition;
• watch a video

The Water Mill on the Zhuzha Rivulet makes part of the Kolomenskoe Ethnographic Complex. Welcome to see its other sites, namely: the Falcon, Horse and Smith’s Yards, the Kolomenskoe Peasant’s and Beekeeper’s Farmhouses.