Alte Mühle Himmerod

When our founders arrived from Bosnia at Himmerod on the Salm River after the end of World War I, they found only one building that was reasonably intact alongside the imposing ruins of the monastery: the “Old Mill.” Together with a family of refugees from Alsace, the seven founding monks found their first home there.

The old grain, storage, and sawmill is the oldest fully preserved 17th-century structure in Himmerod, though its core likely dates back to the foundations and walls from the late 12th or early 13th century. According to the monastery chronicle, the old building complex—which included an attached bakery, brewery, smithy, and possibly a tannery—burned down on June 17, 1592. The new mill must have been completed during the tenure of the great Himmerod abbot Robert Bootz (1685–1730). This is indicated by a date (1701)—now illegible—above the archway of the large eastern entrance portal, as well as by the old granary in the attic, which is dated to 1688. Abbot Bootz incorporated many elements of the old building’s core into the new structure. For example, the north facade still features old Romanesque masonry. This was likely repaired and supplemented after the fire, expanded at the base of the roof gable slope, and raised to a higher level. In the basement area, old vaulted walls, compression chambers, and ashlar masonry from the early period, as well as the milling mechanism, have been preserved.

The traces of its glorious past, the well-preserved structure, and the mystical and symbolic significance of the hydraulic power of the watercourses gave rise to the idea of a new use for the old mill around 1993. In response to the growing need for information and communication, it was decided to transform the “Old Mill” into an international meeting place. In 1994, a support group was established to initiate the renovation project. Together with the Manderscheid Municipal Association under the leadership of then-Mayor Walter Densborn, the artists’ group “Creativ Kreis International” led by Gertrud Rittmann-Fischer, and Himmerod Abbey under Abbot Bruno Fromme, the groundwork was laid for the new art, museum, and community center. Starting in the summer of 1996, the first phases of the renovation were undertaken, ranging from drainage to stabilizing the masonry and removing the old plaster. After the renovation of the roof’s outer shell and the installation of dry insulation in the foundations, the topping-out ceremony for the Alte Mühle was held in October 1997. On August 14, 1998, the Alte Mühle was reopened.