Klostermølle

Facts

Monastic mill

By Lise Andersen, Museumsinspektør, mag.art. (17 stories)

Where the river Gudenå runs out into Mossø lake, Benedictine monks are believed to have established an abbey mill contemporaneous with Voer Abbey some time in the 1100s. The monks built a 1.3 kilometre dam to lead water into a canal with the right drop to drive an undershot water wheel. After the Reformation in 1536, the abbey was closed down and in 1561 it was demolished. The Klostermølle grain mill still exists, but has been converted several times. In 1839, the mill had four grinders and stampers for fulling homespun and cloth. The mill was driven by two undershot water wheels. In 1872, the mill was extended by a wood-pulp grinding mill and was called Træmassefabrikken Klostermølle" (The Abbey Mill Wood Pulp Factory). "

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From monks' mill through industrial mill to nature centre

Story written by Lise Andersen

Time / Periode 1100

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In 1872, an extension to the grain mill enabled it to grind wood into paper pulp, and two turbines were installed. In the period 1933-74, it also produced cardboard. The paper mill burned down in 1974 and was not rebuilt, but the imposing 90-metre drying hall survived. In 1975, the property was sold to the Ministry of the Environment which redesigned it as a nature studies centre. Since the Reformation, the changing buildings at Klostermølle have provided a meeting place for all kinds of people: originally for the peasants who exchanged village gossip while they waited to have their grain milled. It then became a large-scale industrial site, and today it receives hordes of tourists. The mill buildings are used for museum exhibitions and in-between the buildings an abundance of naturalised medicinal herbs are living testimony to the monks' activities more than 500 years ago.