---
node: spot_mykonos_windmills_of_mykonos
type: spot
slug: windmills_of_mykonos
destination: dest_mykonos
title: "Mykonos windmills"
lead: "The seven windmills on the hill above Mykonos town were built by the Venetians in the sixteenth century to grind grain for passing ships. They face north into the meltemi, the wind that made the island's fortune and now blows over its beaches."
published: 2026-08-12
updated: 2026-08-12
image_file: spot_mykonos_windmills_of_mykonos.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Against_Greek_skies,_one_of_the_Mykonos_Island_Windmills,_Chora._Cyclades,_Agean_Sea,_Greece.jpg"
image_author: "Mstyslav Chernov"
image_license: "CC BY-SA 3.0"
---

## Overview

Mykonos was a stop on the grain route between Europe and the Levant, and milling was its main industry before tourism — there were once over twenty mills. They stopped working in the early twentieth century when steam mills undercut them. One, the Boni mill, is a museum with its machinery intact.

## Highlights

The row above Little Venice is the photograph, best in the hour before sunset when the light is behind them. The Boni Windmill museum is small and free and shows how a mill was actually run. Walk down into Little Venice afterwards for the sunset from the waterline.