Na mlýně (or “At the Mill”)
Not far from the lower end of the village of Kozlovice, on the
right bank of the Ondřejnice river at the place where the river cuts into the
Palkovice hills, thereby creating a several kilometres long natural canyon, you
can find a sensitively reconstructed mill with a 250 m long mill-race and a
fully functional mill wheel.
The mill used to be one of the four oldest mills in Kozlovice that were incorporated in the first recorded manorial land-register from 1581. The mill mechanism was propelled by one mill wheel using the so-called “headwater”. However, in the second half of the twentieth century the mill at Kozlovice no. 130 ceased to perform its function and declined rapidly. Its buildings dilapidated, the mill wheel fell to pieces and the mill race silted up.
There used to live also Mr. Šmiřák who, as the records show, was a good acquaintance of Leoš Janáček who was also a regular guest of “Na mlýně”. And this is the place that provided Janáček with inspiration while composing the opera “Její pastorkyňa”.
Today, the mill is well known to public, cyclists, tourists and local inhabitants as a centre of knowledge, excellent cuisine and entertainment. The main building has a ground plan in the shape of the letter “L”. Both parts of the building are storeyed. In the shorter, timbered one you can find a picturesque public house, a small museum of milling artifacts and the main entrance into the lodging quarters. Accommodation is offered also in stylish apartments outside the main building.
The second part of the mill consists of a stylish restaurant “U Mlynářky” with its renowned cuisine. The menu offers local specialties and specials, pasta and salads from the miller’s wife. The home-made food is well complemented by wine list of the Gothic Wine Cellar in Štramberk with noble wines from Moravian vineyards.
The “Na mlýně” park also house a permanent exhibition of artifacts taken from the farms of our grandfathers and the kitchens of our grandmothers. The best way to appreciate the resourcefulness of our forebears and the appeal of the milling exhibits called “kašák, šperčák, tvargač, klaťák and strýk” is to use a personal tour guide. In the summer season you can even watch the master blacksmith working in his shop. The park features also a roofed-in outdoor grill with seating and wooden Chapel of St. Florian, consecrated by the bishop of Ostrava-Opava F. V. Lobkowicz.
