My apologies for mangling words and place names on this page - I don't speak
Czech, and some words on this page have been rendered without accents.
In addition, I've
sometimes had to guess which word on a page was the town - it's highly
likely that I've managed to mis-locate a number of these mills, or have
placed them under a heading which is not their actual location.
Windmill is rendered in Czech as either "vetrnik", or "vetrny mlyn".
This brick built cylindrical tower from 1873 retains a great deal of its
internal machinery, though the external appearance of the mill has
deteriorated in recent years.
The mill was extensively modernized in 1918 when a gas coke motor was added
as a power source, and a rolling and peeling machine introduced. Operation
continued until 1941.
This post mill is the last remaining of 3 mills that once dominated the town of Klobouky.
It was originally constructed at Pacetluky, and transported to its current position.
Derelict tower mill, with some contents remaining. Roof is in good condition,
but below that things get worse - windshaft is burnt through, and remains
of one gear wheel are on top floor. The single central pair of millstones
remain somewhat precariously in place on the middle floor, being 1m in
diameter, and the top stone is 28cm thick, with a 6cm iron shaft driving it.
The ground floor is uneven with no stairs remaining to upper floors. Outside,
the tower is on a mixture of different size bricks, with much of the rendering
now breaking off, and bricks have dislodged around windows and doorways. No
doors remain in place. The bare stocks of the sails remain.
Conical stone tower mill dating from 1842, with a shingled roof,
which retains its milling machinery.
Grain continued to be milled here until the end of the First World War, then
through to 1946 just crushing rather than milling was performed. The owners
from 1904 to the end of its working line were the Kasik family, and by 1973 it
was in a state of disrepair. In that year the technical Museum in Brno
stared a restoration which took till 1977, and the mill is now open to the
public along with the adjacent residential and agricultural buildings.
The festival "Hornacke slavnosti" is held at the mill each June, and the mill
features on a Czech postage stamp.
The white painted cylindrical tower mill now incorporated into Pension
Vetrnik was originally built in 1722. The sails and milling machinery were
removed around 1899, and the residential wing added as part of the conversion
in 1902 by the grandfather of the present owner. During the Communist era,
the buildings provided housing for 3 or 4 families.
Pictures from 1958 show the accommodation has changed a bit since then, and
now the residential wing provides the six guest rooms of the pension.
A couple of millstones in the gardens are a reminder of the building's
milling heritage.
Cylindrical random stone tower mill, built 1865, by M Sevcik (whose family continued to own it through to 1970).
Repairs were made in 1922, but the sails were destroyed by a storm in 1925,
and in 1929 the mill switched to electrical power. Milling was stopped by
officials during WW2, who cancelled the miller's privilege in 1945. Repairs
in 1968 did much to arrest the general disrepair, and new sails were fitted
in 1973. The tin roof of an earlier repair was removed in 1996, and a
shingled roof reinstated.
The mill now houses a museum, which opened in August 1994, including geological
and caving exhibits, and a history of the village. In the garden there is
a collection of millstones, though none of the milling machinery remains
inside the tower.
This cylindrical mill tower was built by Cyril Wagner in 1873 with regular
sails. However after storm damage in 1882, Cyril changed to using a
multi-vaned Halladay wind-engine, which almost doubled the power of the mill.
During the 20th century, the mill had many owners, but was put out of action
when the Wehrmacht used the area as a shooting range during the Nazi
occupation. As then mill owner, J Tesar, was removed from the mill in
1948, the mechanism fell into disrepair.
The remains were dismantled, and a reconstruction of the wind-engine was
undertaken in 1994-5, following the original design. The tower itself no
longer houses the original milling machinery, but is open to the public
at certain times.
Vertical sided tower mill, retaining most internal machinery, and some
remnants of sails (stored inside).
Undergoing restoration, commencing with external rendering work in 2002.
Technicke Pamatky Cech, Moravy a Slezska (Technical Monuments of
Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia), Geodezie CS, ISBN 80-7279-028-5
- a Czech/English/German book and 1:500,000 map presenting
"monuments of industry and which have been declared as a part of the
national cultural heritage and cultural monuments, also other buildings
illustrating industrial heritage of the Czech republic". [Recommended!]
Dilo a zivot mlynaru a sekerniku v Cechach
(Work and Life of Millers and Millwrights in Bohemia),
Ludek Stepan and Magda Krivanova, ARGO 2001, ISBN 80-7203-254-2
- a Czech language book, with English and German picture captions,
plus a poorly translated "Short history of mills" appendix.
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