Windmills of Oía

The windmills at the northern tip of Oia are cylindrical, whitewashed stone towers topped by conical wooden roofs. These structures once relied on the powerful meltemi wind to grind barley and wheat for the island’s population, operating as the heavy industry of a landscape that lacks rivers and flat farmland. At their peak, more than seventy such mills functioned across Santorini, with the earliest foundations in this area dating to the seventeenth century.