Lille Mølle (

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

: Little Mill) is a

historic house museum A historic house museum is a house of historic significance that has been transformed into a museum. Historic furnishings may be displayed in a way that reflects their original placement and usage in a home. Historic house museums are held to a ...

in the Christianshavn neighbourhood of

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of Denmark , establish ...

. It was the last windmill on the old ramparts of Christianshavn. It is a Dutch

smock mill The smock mill is a type of windmill that consists of a sloping, horizontally weatherboarded, thatched, or shingled tower, usually with six or eight sides. It is topped with a roof or cap that rotates to bring the sails into the wind. This typ ...

erected in 1783 on one of the bastions, replacing a

post mill The post mill is the earliest type of European windmill. Its defining feature is that the whole body of the mill that houses the machinery is mounted on a single vertical post, around which it can be turned to bring the sails into the wind. All p ...

built in 1669. It was turned into a private home in 1916. Until 2016, the Little Mill was open to visitors on limited opening hours. Everything was left exactly as it stood when the house was still lived in. The home was at the same time highly eclectic and typical of its period. The National Museum closed this historic house museum in 2016.Little Mill closes
(in Danish) Berlingske, 28 November 2016, retrieved 2018-05-11.

History

The first windmill

The first windmill on the site was a

built in 1669. It was one of numerous windmills which were constructed on Copenhagen's Bastioned Fortifications. The only other of these to survive today is the windmill at the Kastellet fortress. In the event of

siege A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characteriz ...

, a fortified city needed secure supplies, including supplies of flour and rolled groats. In the same time, a location on the bastions provided favourable wind conditions.

The second windmill

The old windmill was replaced by a Dutch

erected in 1783. In 1832 the complex was expanded with a four-story steam mill. Together the two mills acted as a grain mill, supplying the citizens of Copenhagen with flour. At the end of the 19th century the mill cap was disassembled and for a while the mill was used by the military for storing straw needed for some nearby barracks, both as fodder for the horses and bedding for the soldiers whose mattresses needed an occasional refill. In 1909 the steam mill was put out of operation.

Conversion into a home

In 1916, Little Mill was acquired by Ejnar Flach-Bundegaard, a young engineer, who turned it into the private home of himself and his wife as well as a small factory, ''DIAF - Dansk Instrument og apparatfabrik'' (English: Danish Instrument and Device Factory). Mr. and Mrs. Flach-Bundegaard made their highly eclectic home in the five storey octagonal mill base. The factory was located in the steam mill and a warehouse that has now been demolished on the other side of Christianshavn Voldgade.

The museum today

Ejnar Flach-Bundegaard died in 1949 and his widow in 1974. Shortly before her death, she donated Little Mill to the

Danish National Museum The National Museum of Denmark (Nationalmuseet) in Copenhagen is Denmark's largest museum of cultural history, comprising the histories of Danish and foreign cultures, alike. The museum's main building is located a short distance from Strøget ...

, and today everything stands exactly as it did when the couple were alive. Despite not being a typical home, Little Mill is in some ways characteristic of its period, being furnished in a national romantic yet uniquely personal style.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lille Molle Smock mills in Denmark Grinding mills in Denmark Listed windmills in Denmark Listed agricultural buildings in Copenhagen Listed industrial buildings in Copenhagen Listed residential buildings in Copenhagen Listed buildings and structures in Christianshavn Windmills completed in 1783 Octagonal buildings in Denmark