Keramari Watermill

The ravine has been the heart of Karavas, especially in the past when the agricultural activity was organized around it. The locals, with a multitude of traditional hydraulic works, made optimal and sustainable use of the precious water. Apart from all other works (ties, “skalia”, cisterns etc.), there were 9 watermills in this ravine. The watermills were an indispensable link in the sequence of agricultural works for the production of flour. When watermills operated (late 16th century), the population of the island was large, and every inch of land was cultivated even on remote and steep terraces. The food sufficiency of each family depended on the products they produced. The persistent annual agricultural work, from soil preparation and sowing, to threshing and harvesting, ended with the final step: the grinding of the creal. Thus, they filled the sacks with fruit, loaded the donkeys and followed the paths to the watermills. There they unloaded the donkeys and waited in the living room, drinking or eating until the grinding was over. The miller was usually paid with 8 -10% of the flour (right) and the rest was loaded and returned to their home. The Keramari watermill is 11 meters long and 5 meters wide, and has three rooms: A waiting room, a flour warehouse and the workshop of the mill. The watermill was powered by the south-southwest through a water channel.