Moesgård Forest Mill ( or just ') is a mill and a

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus municipality, Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and app ...

, Denmark. The mill was built in 1785 and was listed on the Danish registry of protected buildings and places by the

Danish Heritage Agency The Danish Agency for Culture and Palaces () is an agency under the aegis of the Danish Ministry of Culture. The agency carries out the cultural policies of the Danish government within the visual and performing arts, music, literature, museums, h ...

on 13 April 1984. The mill is situated in the

Marselisborg Forests Marselisborg Forests (), or simply Marselisborg Forest, is a forest to the south of Aarhus City in the Kingdom of Denmark. Many present day sources now includes the forest of Fløjstrup, as part of the Marselisborg Forests, upping the total area ...

just south of the suburb Skåde and

Moesgård Museum Moesgaard Museum (MOMU) is a Danish regional museum dedicated to archaeology and ethnography. It is located in Beder, a suburb of Aarhus, Denmark. MOMU cooperates with the Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, Medieval and Renaissance Archaeolog ...

, some 6 km. south of Aarhus city center.

History

The mill is mentioned for the first time in 1570. It is situated in the forests south of Aarhus along the

Giber Å Giber Å is a long stream in Aarhus Municipality. Giber Å and surroundings is a protected Natura 2000 site. The protection is mainly located in the Marselisborg Forests approximately 4 miles south of the city of Aarhus. Course Giber Å spri ...

stream which has, in spite of its short length of 12 km., serviced three mills; Rokballe, Fulden, and Moesgård mills. Today only Moesgård Forest Mill survives as a functional mill. For most of its time, the millers on the property were copyholders under Moesgård Manor. The mill had lands attached making it possible to run a small farm along with the mill. The last copyholder on the mill was Frederik Jensen who received royal permission to establish a grain thresher. However, the mill was profitable and Thorkild Christian Dahl of Moesgård wished to run the mill directly under his estate. Frederik Jensen was eventually driven off the land and the mill was henceforth managed directly under Moesgård. The mill was renovated in 1852 and the main building made one floor higher. The last miller was Søren Petersen in 1883–1922. His son-in-law inherited the mill and turned it into a sawmill. In the late 1800s, the mill became a popular destination for Aarhusians on day trips which it remains to this day. The ground floor of the main building is today a restaurant. The mill was restored in 1991 and is today operated by

as a museum.

Architecture

The mill appears as it did after the last major changes in 1852. The mill itself is from 1785 although the first floor was added in 1852. The farmhouse was built in 1824. The mill is built on a base of boulders with half-timbered walls and gables. The roof is

thatched Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge ('' Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...

with straw and the milling equipment is in almost original condition.

References

External links

*
Restaurant Skovmøllen Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moesgard Forest Mill Listed buildings in Aarhus Timber framed buildings in Aarhus Municipality Thatched buildings in Denmark Houses completed in 1785 Watermills in Denmark Restaurants in Aarhus