Molino Scodellino

An old mill dating back to the 15th century with its structure almost entirely in tact.

Description: The Mulino Scodellino (or of the Contessa) is the last existing example of a series of mills built between the 14th and 15th century along the canal and which gave it its name. In 1468 the Municipality of Castel Bolognese took its possession. It is a rustic building, made of face brick and of solid structure, which reveals its original plant. It faces onto via Canale with a characteristic low portico supported by large beams and reinforcement arches. This portico served as a shelter for the carts that went to the mill during bad weather; the iron rings where the horses were tied are still visible on the façade. The mill develops towards the west on the other side with a second body to the back, used as a barn and dating back to 1700.On the ground floor in a first room there are two millstones, one for the grinding of wheat and the other for corn (1400). The external covering and the wooden hopper are still well preserved. Further on, in a second room, there is a gyratory sifting machine and a wheat cleaning machine called “tarara”. The construction of these machines dates back to the end of the 1800’s, although they were installed in 1935, the year in which a general modernisation of the plants took place. Up high there are strong wooden beams holding up the roof and the residence of the miller on the upper floor that faces onto the road. The machinery is still the original: each milling plant is made up essentially of two millstones, of which one is fixed and the other rotating on top of it. Each millstone was moved by the force of the water beating onto the propellers of the hydraulic wheel with connection via a transmission shaft. The propellers and the structures for transmitting the motor were mad of solid oak wood and steel. The mill was restored by the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage of Ravenna in 1975-76.The old mill of Scodellino, no longer active after centuries of activity, was up until not long ago inhabited by a family of millers who were also the caretakers.