The timber mill
Working maize machinery.
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The Bread Museum in the small town of Ilópolis is a cultural centre built around the old Colognese mill, a timber mill raised by a local carpenter in the 1930s from the heartwood of araucaria pines, to grind wheat and maize for this region settled by Italian immigrants. The Colognese brothers bought the building in 1953 and restarted the mill, which was abandoned in the late 1990s after the miller died. In 2004 an association of friends of the Alto Taquari mills was founded and bought the building, which was restored by the architecture firm Brasil Arquitetura with the University of Caxias do Sul and an Italian institute, and the maize-grinding machinery was brought back to working order. The architects added two new buildings beside the mill: a glass-walled exhibition hall shaded by sliding timber panels, and a baking school, making the site a celebrated example of rural heritage restoration. It is part of the region's «Mills Trail»; check opening times before making the trip.
Working maize machinery.
Contemporary design.
Immigrant traditions.
Central Ilópolis, Alto Taquari valley, Rio Grande do Sul
A tourist route linking the old immigrant mills of the Alto Taquari valley.