Revere's Ship Mill (Mulino natante di Revere) in Revere, Italy

Atlas Obscura is sharing the story of Revere's ship mill in Italy—a remarkable piece of medieval engineering that's making a comeback. Ship mills worked by harnessing river current to turn grain-grinding stones, and they were invented way back in five thirty-seven, during the siege of Rome. The technology spread rapidly across Europe and was eventually adopted in Iraq, where it took root in the tenth century. On Italy's Po River, the longest waterway in northern Italy, ship mills became widespread—Emperor Lodovico enacted a law about them in eight fifty-one, showing how established they'd become. By nineteen oh-two, an official census counted two hundred sixty-six of them. But the twentieth century wasn't kind: ferries replaced them, and the last one on the Po was destroyed by Allied bombing in nineteen forty-five. Today, Revere's ship mill has been restored and works as part of the Po Museum, making it the only operational ship mill in Italy and one of just a few still functioning anywhere in Europe.

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