The origins of Ta’ Kola Windmill date back to 1725 when the Manoel Foundation decided to build a windmill in Xaghra, Gozo. This windmill, however, seems to have incorporated bad quality stones and mortar and had to be dismantled and reconstructed during the 1780s.

The first miller to run the renovated windmill was Marcello Scicluna. Eventually, by the 1850s Ta’ Kola Windmill was run by the Grechs, an established family of millers from Mosta, Malta. This family continued to run the windmill until the 1980s. Guzeppi, the last of the Grech millers, operated, maintained and resided in this windmill until he died in 1987. He was an ingenious craftsman and many of the tools on display were created by him. It is also thanks to Guzeppi that one can still experience the way millers lived and operated these dominating landmarks. The windmill’s name of Ta’ Kola is also synonymous with him as he was popularly known as Zeppu ta’ Kola (Joseph the son of Nikola).

Today, this windmill is managed by Heritage Malta, the National Agency for Museums and Cultural Heritage. On the ground floor of the windmill, visitors can view the workshop, which was used for several trades like carpentry, smiting and stone dressing, since the milling mechanism was subjected to high wear and tear, while the windmill’s antennae were often damaged by inclement weather. A further two rooms on this same floor served as stores. One of these features different types of scales and grain measures and various implements employed in the process of threshing the harvest. The other contains a number of hand-operated mills for the grinding of small quantities of wheat, and different sieves employed for the separation of the chaff from the flour.

The rooms on the first floor served as living quarters for the miller’s family. Visitors may enter the dining room, the kitchen and the bedrooms. Other interesting objects on display include among others, typical vernacular loose furniture, kitchen utensils, a cotton gin (to separate the seed from the cotton), a weaving loom and a baby’s hammock.

A spiral staircase leads up to the upper part of the circular tower which houses the milling device.

Ta’ Kola Windmill is located in Bambina Street, Xaghra, Gozo.