The windmill was built in 1899. Before that here was the first Eastern Orthodox Church in Kuressaare that burned down at the beginning of 1780s during the fire in the city.  

This windmill was in working order until 1941. When the war began, the sails were sawn off in order to avoid the enemies to use then for signalling. It is known from the history that during World War I the French, using the sails, gave signals about the movement direction and even about the number of enemies to their own troops.

After the war, the windmill was used as a store, and the miller’s living area – in the left protrusion from the front view – as an apartment.

In order to improve the catering conditions in Kuressaare in connection with the increased number of tourists from the end of 1960s, the restoration of the windmill with the aim of using it as a café started in autumn 1972, architect Fredy Tomps. The interior design was made by architect Aet Maasik and the foreman and manager was Jaan Mitt. During the restoration the original structure of a Dutch stone windmill was attempted to preserve.

On 4 January 1974, Café Veski opened for visitors. Immediately after the opening, the café became one of the most popular places in our city, and at the moment we are the oldest operating catering establishment in Kuressaare. “Veski” is an architectural monument of national importance.

The right protrusion was built in 2002 to provide more possibilities and seats for our visitors.



People started building Dutch windmills in Saaremaa only in the second half of the 19th century, though such type of windmills spread from Western Europe to the Baltic States in the 17th century already. Unlike post windmills, only the upper part and sails of Dutch windmills were turned towards the wind. Those mills were bigger, more powerful and had an original look.

Dutch windmills were technically more advanced than the post windmills that were earlier widely used in Saaremaa. In addition to meal and groats (coarse grinding), it was possible to mill grain into flour in Dutch windmills. For that purpose there were several pairs of grindstones.

A high and flat place, where there was always strong wind, was chosen for a windmill. In order to catch even more wind, often and extra floor of stone was build beneath that was used for carrying cartloads of grain in.



The diameter of the grindstones was about a metre and they were 30 cm thick. The upper stone was thicker than the lower one in order to get better flour. To get finer grains, the grinding surface was cut uneven.
 
Strong north wind favoured grinding – it was even and made beautiful flour. Soft south wind was uneven and therefore the windmill also worked unevenly. On islands, people milled with west wind. If the wind was favourable, people worked twenty-four hours, except Saturday and Sunday nights.

In summer there was neither wind nor time for grinding and therefore flour for summer was made in early spring. It was believed that the new moon brings moths into flour, thus the old moon was preferred for grinding.



At the height of the 3rd floor, there is a gallery or balcony around the windmill. The sails reach the balcony and, with the help of a certain device, it was possible to turn the sails with the cupola towards the wind. From the gallery, it was also possible to reef the sails made of cloth and fixed to the windmill sails.

The windmill sails set the main shaft in revolving, and the big gear wheel was attached to it. The gear wheel set the ‘värkel’ attached to the vertical shaft in revolving. The vertical shaft was a round or octahedral tall and thick log that came from the upper floor to the lower floor and rested there on a wooden block. For this a strong metal shaft was hammered to the bottom of the vertical shaft, its round end rested on a metal bearing put on the block.

 On the lower floor (3rd floor) the big gear was attached to the vertical shaft. This set two ‘värkels’ in revolving, which set the upper millstones in revolving.

By wind force the sacks of grain were lifted to the 5th floor with the shaft. From the fifth floor the grains were poured into the grain hopper, and from there the grain got between the millstones of the lower hopper and shoe (4th floor). The end product was received on the 2nd floor.


Windmill is 17 meeters high and if we include also the wings then the highest point will be 24 meeters.