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All Bosnia and Herzegovina Jajce Watermills of Jajce

Watermills of Jajce

This cluster of little wooden huts once ground local farmers’ wheat into flour during the days of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Jajce, Bosnia and Herzegovina

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mandacvitic
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The region around Jajce is all about water, waterfalls, rivers, lakes… and watermills   mandacvitic / Atlas Obscura User
The region around Jajce is all about water, waterfalls, rivers, lakes… and watermills   mandacvitic / Atlas Obscura User
The giant waterfall in the center of Jajce (c. 1900)   Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division
The watermills are just a few miles down-river from Jajce   Foant on WikiCommons
Watermills on the Pliva River, originally used as grist mills for the locals   Ziegler175 on WikiCommons
view of the Watermills   Julian Nitzsche on WikiCommons
The watermills look like a little storybook village   Darij & Ana on Flickr
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About

Jajce, in the central region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, is a historic city all about falling water. Famous for its enormous waterfall in the middle of town, the meeting of two rivers – the Pliva and the Vrbas – established the region in the 14th century as the capital of the then Kingdom of Bosnia.  There’s a town castle, old fortified city walls, high mountains and deep river valleys. And just downstream, in the area of the Pliva Lakes, is a collection of about 20 little huts that once served as watermills for local farmers.

The little windowless huts sit on top of skinny stilts right over the gushing water. Since the flow here is spread out, by using a series of little mills instead of one big water wheel, the diffuse water power could be aggregated. Pretty ingenious. Most of the huts go back to the period of the Austro-Hungarian empire (about 1867 to 1918), and they give the impression of a little storybook village.

No longer used for actual milling, the Pliva Lakes watermills draw tourists down the river from the giant waterfall in town. That one is certainly impressive with its showy 65-foot drop. But the little shingled watermills feel like they might be home to some local trolls, with their dragons hitched up out back.

Related Tags

Waterfalls Industrial Rivers Aqueducts Water

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About 3 miles (5km) west of Jajce, following the M5 to Plivka Lakes Park

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Community Contributors

Added By

mandacvitic

Edited By

julianfkeller99, Ingrid Vertessen

  • julianfkeller99
  • Ingrid Vertessen

Published

January 18, 2016

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Sources
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jajce
  • http://www.agencija-jajce.ba/karta/index.php/en/plivska-jezera-sa-kompleksom-mlin-va-na-plivi
Watermills of Jajce
(Pliva Lakes Park)
Jajce
Bosnia and Herzegovina
44.347438, 17.228578
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Photo of Jajce

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