16th Century Mill in Lija

This is ancient windmill is located in the upper part of the village of Ħal Lija, in an area that formerly made part of the village of Ħal Bordi, a small village that was separated from the three villages of Ħal Lija, Ħ 'Attard and Ħal Balzan. Where before the original chapel of Ħal Bordi stood, today this windmill was built instead.
With so many fields flourishing around it, the wind blew in its sails and so it turned the husky granite stone that tended and crushed the wheat into flour, which then the people of the area would buy to make the daily bread. The wind blew strongly,  especially when it came from the side of Mdina to the huge plain that reaches as far as “Tal_Mirakli”,  as this area is known.
This mill is unique because it is was built in a round shape  and to this day no one has found meaning why it was built that way. One meaning may be that when in 1664 Grandmaster Cottoner built the nearby Church of Our Lady of Miracles,  some tombs were found next to the Windmill, so it is assumed that the windmill, as we know it today, was built on the foundations and remains of that ancient chapel that was built before it.
This mill, like other mills, continued to be used for many years - not only during the time of the Knights, but also after the Order of St. John. The importance of these windmills began to wane when the first steam mills appeared. They probably continued to work until the first thirty years of the twentieth century. 
As each mill would have been leased by the Government to those who milled the grain, when they stopped, it was mostly used by blacksmiths whose job it was to make tools for the stone masons this can be attested by the signs of burnt stones where the forge used to be. Such signs can also be seen in this mill.

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