• Built on the banks of the Danube according to a project by Anghel Saligny, the largest steam mill in Eastern Europe is currently a ruin.
The sad story of steam mills in Romania, architectural jewels in their time, continues with the Violatos Mill declared a historical monument in 2004. At the time of its inauguration, the Violatos Mill was considered the most modern steam-based mill in South-Eastern Europe, with the highest production capacity. Built according to the project of the great architect Anghel Saligny, it represents an important visual landmark of the city of Brăila, a tab from the former industrial glory of the Danube city.
The story mill is linked to the history of the Violatos family, Greek merchants who settled in the city from the Danube around the 1800s. At the time of settling in Braila, Violatos was already a well-known name in the grain trade, which is also the reason why they continued to develop business in the field.
The Violatos mill was not the only Brailean mill located on the banks of the Danube. Together with the Valerianos & Lykiardopoulos Mill, the two represented the prosperity of Greek industrialists. In the book "Brăila. Memory of the city", the author Maria Stoica underlines the symbolic importance of the two buildings: "The choice of the location for the two establishments on the bank of the Danube and the resolution of their volume on a monumental scale, although dictated mainly by economic reasons, were subordinated to the symbolic function of representation. Seen from the Danube, the mills impressed with the solidity and grandeur of the architecture and created the impression that the whole city grew from their substance. They visually glorified the city's prosperity and placed it, suggestively, under the sign of wheat."
Industrial glory of the Danube city
In "Historical monuments of Brăila", historian Ioan Munteanu describes "Panait Violatos Flour Factory", as it was called at the time, right "the most imposing and perfected installation in the entire country and, probably, in the entire Orient, which, through the electrical installation, offered a magical view from the Danube."
The Violatos Mill takes its name from its owner, the Greek businessman Panait Violatos. Before owning the mill that bears his name, Panait Violattos was, between 1889-1892, an associate at the Millas Mill, another example of the momentum of Greek businessmen from Brăila.
Most of the flour produced here was destined for export. At the International Exhibition in Paris, from 1889, Iani Millas obtained the Diploma of Distinction and the Silver Medal for the quality of the flour, and King Carol I awarded him the Crown of Romania in the rank of Officer.
Following the success achieved, the Greek industrialists expand their business by buying the Borghetti and Lambridini mills, owned until then by Italian entrepreneurs. Investing large sums of money in the new business, the two manage to produce four qualities of flour, the best for export throughout the country.
An ambitious project
In 1892, Violatos requested the exit from the association with Iani Millas, starting the ambitious project of building the most modern mill in South-Eastern Europe. Out of hatred towards the Millas family and to directly attack its interests, as Iani Millas claims, Panait Violattos attracted Millas Mill workers to his business through higher wages. In addition to all this, he associated with Millas' nephew, Iani Valerianos.
The historian Ioan Munteanu records that the Violatos Flour Factory "it was built without the approval of the municipal councilors and despite the questioning made by Senator Butărescu about the violation of the sanitary law in the case of the location of the steam mills on the banks of the Danube."
The Violatos Mill building was built in 1896 on the banks of the Danube, and in 1897 it was certified as one of the largest in Europe. Bringing the wheat to the mill for processing was done directly from the barges through an underground channel, set up below today's treading level, equipped with special mechanics for automatically introducing the grain from the barges into the factory.
Certified as among the largest in Europe
George Radu, chief inspector at the Brăila Culture Directorate declared on April 23, 2013 for the newspaper Objective: "It was built on wooden pillars driven in the clay soil, fixed with linear concrete elements, the superstructure being made of brick and the floors over the ground floor and over the 5 levels (two of which are occupied by the colossal warehouses of flour of all qualities) of metal profiles with reinforced concrete plate.
Over time, several consolidation works were carried out, most of them being carried out after the 1977 earthquake, by installing steel-concrete tie rods. Reinforced concrete and cement produced at the IG Cantacuzino Portland Cement Factory in Brăila, demolished today, were used in the construction. At the time of its construction, it was the largest mill in South-Eastern Europe, powered by its own motors, which allowed the grinding of impressive amounts of grain, which were later exported to the Near East and North Africa."
Since 1912, the mill had access to the railway, connecting not only to the Brailei quay, but also to the national railway road. In 1921, it had a working capital of 20 million gold lei. Thanks to Gottlieb Luther engines (imported from Braunschweig/Germany), of 1.200 horsepower, which consumed eight tons of fuel oil daily, and electrification, the production activity could be carried out without interruption, producing up to 150 tons of flour in 24 hours. The chief mechanics and millers were brought from abroad, and the flour produced here was of superior quality, the largest amount being destined for export.
The decline of the former industrial and architectural jewel
The decline of the famous mill began in the 1940s when, due to financial problems, it was forced to declare bankruptcy. In 1944, the Russians dismantled all the machinery and transported it to Russia, and in June 1948, the industrial fund of the Violatos Mill, which was under judicial seizure, became the state's heritage. The building was decommissioned, but other destinations were assigned to it, which kept it in the economic circuit until the year 2000.
"The building in Brăila municipality, str. Anghel Saligny no. 1 called Moara Violatos is a historical architectural monument classified and registered as such in the List of historical monuments in Romania, 2004 edition, and is a significant spatial-architectural and urban component of the following historical areas protected with historical monument status: The historical center of the municipality of Brăila si Situl archaeological "Former Metropolis of Proilavia" historical monument.
In the period after the Second World War, the building was nationalized, changing its destination, the mill-related installations were decommissioned, but keeping its external architectural expressiveness", explains the director of the Brăila County Culture Directorate, Ana Hărăpescu.
The Violatos Mill, the emblematic building on the banks of the Danube, the former pride of the city of Brăila, was the subject of a long lawsuit opened by the heirs of the Violatos family. The process lasted more than ten years, upon completion the heirs had the opportunity to opt for several plots of land on the cliff, including the one under the mill, offered in kind, or for their equivalent in money, which they preferred.
An abandoned history tab
The building, an impressive historical monument, is currently privately owned and has been for sale for many years. At the beginning of 2021, the management of the Braiconf SA company, one of the largest local shirt manufacturers in our country, was analyzing several options for moving the shirt factory from Brăila.
Among these options were two class A historical monuments that allow production activities, namely the Violatos Mill and the Lykiardopoulos Mill. However, the Braiconf company finally bought, for 2,5 million lei, the land of the former Comat SA and Remat SA platforms in Brăila, in order to build the new factory.
Thus, Violatos Mill still remains in the heritage of the Danube city, "abandoned, gloomy, "for sale"" (Adina Popescu, "Brăila - the city and the dogs", Old Dilemma), a thread of glorious history, now only a shadow of its famous past.
Photo sources: arhitectura-1906.ro, discovererabraila.ro, turismistoric.ro, brailaveche.wordpress.com.
Article written by Gabriela Dan, Editor of Arta Albă
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