It used to be called a ‘trak’ or simply a saw. It was relocated to the open-air museum from the village of Łopuszna in the Podhale region. It is a long canopied bridge, boarded on one side. The visible mechanism was set in motion with a small water wheel called ‘wałaska’ moved by water dropping from significant height. Thanks to the use of gears, the vertically placed saw moved from the bottom to the top of the frame. Another, slightly larger water wheel set in motion the cart on which the wood to be cut was placed. The sawmill was used for cutting logs into halves called ‘płazy’ that used to be the main building material. The cutters did the rest of the work by hand using a variety of tools, various types of axes and hatchets.
Sawmill, Museum – Orawa Ethnographic Park
Beacon
