Malūnai ir malūnininkai Šiaulių krašte (XVII a. I pusė - XXI a. pr.)

ENThe first mills appeared in Lithuania in the 14th century. By the 17th century, 61 millers were counted in the Great Duchy of Lithuania. In the second half of the 17th and 18th centuries there were about 100 millers in Samogitia. Until the end of the 19th century, windmills in Lithuania were a typical detail of rural and town landscape. At the time, there were about 200 of them. According to the cartographic material of 1914–1921, there were already about 1000 windmills in Lithuania. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries there were about 2000 water mills. In Northern Lithuania, mills were found in the districts of Akmenė, Joniškis, Radviliškis, Pakruojis, Pasvalys, Šiauliai and other places. At the end of the 19th century, windmills accounted for 54 percent, water for 43 percent and steam for 3 percent of all Lithuanian mills. During the interwar period, there were over a hundred windmills in Pakruojis district alone. The oldest were in Pakruojis (1828), Geručiai (1841), Pamūšis (1861) and Guostagalis (1870). The last windmill in Pakruojis district was built in Gelčiai village in 1936.