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MILLS ON THE RIVER LJUTA
The Mills of the River Ljuta, with regard to their location, are divided into Upper and Lower Mills. The loca-tion follows the configuration of the terrain, conditioned by the existing roads. The local road starts at the source, then continues South along the river mills and across the river towards Gruda. It was about two meters wide, and the Konavlle people would say that it is a one-pas or one-sežanj road. One pas equals 2.048 m.
In the 15th Century, the most important Konavle road was the Communal Way (Via Communa). It was two pas wide, and was running directly alongside the Lower Mills. Its route required an expensive and demanding construction of the Lower Mills.
Namely, in its upper part, the river falls steeply and this made the construction of the mills simple, the necessary drop in water to start the turbine of the mill was achieved after only some ten meters. Their sluices were shorter, only ten meters long. In the lower part of the river, the mills were located on a flat portion of the terrain, which caused the water from the river to flow through several hundred meters long sluices to achieve the necessary fall.