Venetian Sawmill

The project of a water sawmill was created by Leonardo, but the machine was soon renamed "Venetian", because it was introduced during the time of the Serenissima Republic. In the village of Segetta, in Val Leogra, remains the only still operational Venetian sawmill, the sawmill of Miola, dated in 1700s. The district of Seghetta is located at 2 km north of the centre of Valli del Pasubio. Therein lies the sawmill of Miola, with its segatronchi ad acqua, the machine for woodworking, which uses water power to operate its machinery. A complex machine which, over time, replaced the most basic model of saw wheel. A canal channels water from the stream of Leogra to a water wheel, which transmits the movement inside the sawmill. A flywheel, on which an eccentric is fixed and connected to a piston rod, converts the rotary motion into alternating motion. It operates a vertical frame on which the saw blade is fixed, and the wagon, on which the tree trunk advances slowly, via a rope wound on a roll. The sawmill of Miola is the only Venetian sawmill from 1700s remained in the area and still working, thanks to the competent care of Giuliano Miola. The family has owned the sawmill for more than one hundred fifty years. The factory and the rogetta are much older, and are part of a broader complex of factories, which operated thanks to hydraulic power. A workshop on the fourth floor of the factory, contains interesting work tools, used or manufactured by Miola, which developed along with the craft of woodworking. The sawmill remained active until 1969, and it is now put into operation only during sightseeing tours and educational activities.