Klostermühle (Astheim)
| Monastery mill
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 The mill on an 18th century lithograph |
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| Location and history | ||
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| Coordinates | 49 ° 51 '38 " N , 10 ° 13' 7" E | |
| Location |
 Germany
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| Waters | Main | |
| Built | First mentioned in 1409, new building in 1575 | |
| Shut down | after 1802 | |
| Status | Went completely | |
| technology | ||
| use | Grain and Cutting Mill | |
| drive | Watermill | |
| water wheel | undershot water wheel | |
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The Klostermühle (also Mainmühle ) was a grain and cutting mill in the Volkach district of Astheim in Lower Franconia. The mill was assigned to the Carthusian monastery in the village and was abandoned in the 19th century.
history
The Astheimer Klostermühle is one of the oldest mills on the Volkacher Mainschleife . In the literature it is sometimes even assumed that milling took place here as early as the time of the Frankish conquest in the 8th and 9th centuries. This assumption cannot be proven and must be questioned. First of all, the harvested ears of grain were ground in a so-called hand mill , only when there is a concentration of settlements on the Main can a mill be built.
The mill can only be documented for the first time in 1409. At that time, the aristocratic Erkinger von Seinsheim and his wife founded a Carthusian monastery in the village. In addition to the extensive possessions that were handed over to the Carthusian monks at that time, there was also “the drive across the Main under the mills”. Since the old ferry station between Volkach and Astheim never changed its location, the mill can be identified with the later monastery mill.
Under the Carthusian Prior Johannes Haupt, the system was rebuilt between 1575 and 1577 together with the dams that regulated the inflow of the Main water . After the completion of the new building, an inscription was attached to the mill building. It read: "When one counts fifteen hundred years / seventy and five, because was prior / Johannes Haupt, of the Wehr monastery / The mill has rebuilt here again!"
However, the new work only lasted a little over a hundred years. The mill weirs broke as early as 1698 due to heavy ice drifting on the Main. A mere repair was not enough and Prior Georg Möhring tackled the new building in the water. First, some hydraulic engineering experts were brought from the residential towns in the area to Astheim and the necessary material was brought in. Then the upper weir was artificially broken open and the water diverted towards Volkach.
Construction was carried out day and night and the people of Astheim were obliged to do labor on the water pumps . Nevertheless, water penetrated the foundations and repeatedly destroyed the work. As the construction time increased, the monks had to pay the workers at the pumps a wage. The result was that the people of Astheim tended their vineyards more negligently. As a result of the payment, the construction costs continued to rise and the Charterhouse became impoverished.
The mill construction was probably pushed forward in stages in the following period in order to save costs. First a foundation made of lime was put in place before the actual construction could begin. In the course of the new building, a cutting mill was also built, the work of which was stopped in 1733 due to popular protest. The date of completion of the new monastery mill on the Main is not known.
In 1742 a new misfortune began for the Carthusians and their mill. The neighboring Obereisenheimers began to build a Main mill themselves. The prior of the Charterhouse, however, insisted that his facility should be the only one in the area. The rule of Castell-Rüdenhausen , to which Obereisenheim belonged, also did not help to interrupt the work. Only a commission from the Würzburg prince-bishop removed the second mill building on the Mainschleife.
The monopoly position of the monastery mill in the 18th century also meant that the mill was "(...) counted among the 7 most important mills in Franconia " in 1754 . However, the decline had already been initiated by the secularization of the monastery in Astheim in 1803. The buildings belonging to the Charterhouse were sold to the chancellery director Jörg from Wiesentheid in 1804 . The mill was probably demolished in the middle of the 19th century.
However, some remains remained until the Astheim barrage was built in the course of the construction of the Volkacher Main Canal . When the water level was low, you could still see processed wood protruding from the water. The mill hole could also be seen. It was a 5 m deep hole with a diameter of 15 to 20 m. The mill wheel was installed here. All of the remains were leveled in the 1950s.
technology
The mill was at times equipped with four grinding passages and one cutting passage. The water was directed to the mill wheel through a weir and dam system and probably drove an undershot mill wheel.
literature
- Christa Benedum, Karl-Peter Büttner, Gerhard Egert, Franz Pfrang, Werner Stahr: Astheim and his Charterhouse . Wuerzburg 1991.
- Franz Pfrang: The monastery mill in Astheim . In: Ute Feuerbach (ed.): Our Main Loop. 1978-1992 . Volkach 2008. pp. 152-156.
- Erika Stadler: On the trail of Volkach's town mills . In: Ute Feuerbach (ed.): Our Main Loop. 1978-1992 . Volkach 2008. pp. 279-291.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Benedum, Christa (among others): Astheim and his Charterhouse . P. 19.
- ^ Pfrang, Franz: The monastery mill in Astheim . P. 154.
- ^ Pfrang, Franz: The monastery mill in Astheim . P. 155.
- ^ Pfrang, Franz: The monastery mill in Astheim . P. 156.
- ↑ Stadler, Erika: In the footsteps of the Volkach town mills . P. 290.