Today, ‘Molenstraat’ is just a ‘normal’ street name in Vianen town centre. The windmill from which the street gets is name burned down in the night of 10 to 11 April 1913 after running away due to strong winds and too much sail. Only the masonry base – which also survived previous fires – remained and continued to be used for a long time as a warehouse. The building was demolished in 1964 during a restoration of the old town wall.
The first mention of a town windmill at the end of Molenstraat appe…
Today, ‘Molenstraat’ is just a ‘normal’ street name in Vianen town centre. The windmill from which the street gets is name burned down in the night of 10 to 11 April 1913 after running away due to strong winds and too much sail. Only the masonry base – which also survived previous fires – remained and continued to be used for a long time as a warehouse. The building was demolished in 1964 during a restoration of the old town wall.
The first mention of a town windmill at the end of Molenstraat appears on a town map dating from 1560. The windmill is situated exactly at the corner of the western and southern town walls. A contract specification from 1691 mentioned a new hollow-post corn windmill which replaced the old post windmill. This new windmill had a span of 25 metres and was built on a square wall with two floors measuring 3 metres each. In the year 1838, the upper part of the hollow-post corn windmill was destroyed by fire but replaced quickly. However, the structure was then no longer a hollow-post corn windmill but instead a wooden octagonal smock mill. The preserved base, however, shows that the windmill was originally a hollow-post corn mill. For several years now, the Stichting Herbouw Wipkorenmolen Vianen (Vianen Hollow-Post Windmill Restoration Foundation) has been working hard to rebuild the old Vianen town windmill.
Further reading: Town wall and town canal, Vianen town centre.
