LOCATIONS — 231/262 — Danemark Mill
The Danemark Mill was built above the Vrchlitz river during the economic growth of Kuttenberg, possibly even earlier than the 15th century. It deserves to be remembered and immortalized in the game, mainly because it is the last surviving Middle Age building among many similar ones in the area. It can be viewed today having undergone an 18th century reconstruction and no longer serves as a mill. Who knows, perhaps the longevity of this building was due not only to its owners, but also to the spirits of the first settlers in the area. Traces of prehistoric settlement, dating back to the early Eneolithic period (4,400 and 2,000 BC), have been found on the rock above the mill.
TRIVIA
— The well-exposed silver-bearing ores along the Vrchlice stream south of Kutná Hora attracted miners since the High Middle Ages. More than a dozen mills along the barely 30 km long stream survived at least in the form of ruins – most of them related to the mining trade, though some, such as the Spálený Mlýn with its bakery, were responsible for the supply of the area. In the 15th century so many mills were located here that the millers allegedly barely needed to leave the valley to provide for themselves, as they could simply “trade brooms with each other”. Settlements along the river reach back much further though, and the summits of the mountain line has been home to multiple fortified hillforts throughout the millennia. Of one such hillfort from 9th to 10th century, the Slavic Cimburk fort, the remains of an ice cellar can be found, which in winter would be stocked with ice blocks broken off the mountains to keep the food cool until summer. Another hillfort was also located above the Denmark Mill, stemming from the Řivnáč culture, around 3000 BC. Once they were no longer needed, the storage rooms in this fort, likely used to store grain, were repurposed for waste disposal – a treasury for archaeologists 5000 years later. The name of the Denmark Mill likely derived from the Denmark adit (also called Poličany adit), which in turn was named after the nationality of the miners working there. Founded in the 14th century and in operation until at least the 16th century, with a partial restoration in 1770, the Denmark adit was also significant for another reason: In 1534, it prompted the creation of one of the oldest surviving mountain maps in Central Europe. Drawn by Zikmund Prášek, a mining expert and supervisor of mining work, using an early mining dial, the map shows a ground plan projection of the adit, accompanied by Czech information on the geological composition of the respective segments. -> -> -> ->