There are 2 types of mills. The more complex one is the “Dolapkinya” type, i.e. with overshot vertical wheel on a horizontal axis. The wheel has solid sides and separate pockets – “dolaps” between them. Water falls, filling the pockets and turns the wheel. With the help of another wheel, the horizontal axis transmits the rotational movement to a vertical axis on which the millstones are attached. This type of wheel can work with small amounts of water, so it is more efficient. The simpler and more primitive type of mills are called “karadzheyki”. In them, the water wheel is horizontal and its axis directly drives the millstone. In Zverino, all mills were with horizontal wheels. They consist of three parts: a building, a chute and a working mechanism.
Hundreds of mills for grinding grain were built along the tributaries of the Iskar River due to the poor transport connections of the villages along the Gorge during the Middle Ages, Turkish slavery and in the first years after the Liberation. The people were poor, the river valleys were steep and narrow, and this is the reason why the mills were small with a simple structure. Often the mills were owned by several families who milled for their own needs.
In the village of Zverino there were 19 mills along the Zlatitsa River and its tributary Slatina (4 in the village itself). On the other side of the Iskar River, along the right tributary, the Charzhovitsa River, there are 9 mills. Now only stone foundations and a few millstones remain of them.
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