Windmill from the village of Spass (museum «Kostromskaya Sloboda»)

Short description
The windmill from the village of Spass (Nerechtsky district, Kostroma region) was built around the second half of the 19th century, was transported to the museum of wooden architecture "Kostromskaya sloboda" (Kostroma region) in 1987. Smock mill with horizontal shaft, four sails and two pairs of millstones. Sheathed Frame. Was used as a flour mill (flour).

Condition	The windmill is conserved
Status	Museum exhibit
Mechanism	Conserved, not restored

The following historical parts of the mechanism have been preserved:


Additional description
Kostromskaya smock mill is one of two mills with a horizontal shaft. This means that from below the frame of the mill is enclosed by a full house with a lot of equipment. The closest and the only “relative” to this mill is Kochymlevo (New Jerusalem). The mill has remarkably fewer gears than in New Jerusalem. One of the surviving elements is the stunning, carved crown wheel of the horizontal shaft. The second element is a vertical/upright shaft with two sockets for the gear wheels: the middle one to move the horizontal shaft and the lower one - to two pairs of millstones. Unfortunately, the mill hasn’t preserved any gears or millstone systems. Apparently, the mill has a story to tell. Not only the internal ceilings and staircases haven’t preserved, but even the tailpole, which always remains. The windshaft outside is iron, but it may have survived inside.

The mill has several riddles. One of them is a horizontal shaft, which is suspiciously smooth. It is unclear how it could be the driving force of the operating mechanisms. The second riddle is a round hole in the mill wall. It seems that some part of the horizontal shafts system shafts went outside the mill. Well, and the main riddle - what gears were hidden under a huge mill house-like barn. Referring to New Jerusalem as an example, we can assume that it was a crushing mill, a butter churn, or a honey extractor. No traces were found though.

An interesting detail is the forged lock of the mill barn.

At the moment the mill is closed for visitors, however, probably, in the near future it might become a mill museum.

In conclusion, we would like to note that the mill is a part of the three-mill landscape of Kostromskaya Sloboda, one of the two preserved landscapes like this in Russia.