Our reconstructed water mill and museum recalls the medieval merchant city centre. Visit our mill museum where you can learn about the nearly 1000 years old history of the mill throughout our temporary exhibition. According to past practices, the miller craft and flour making can also be learnt in our interactive museum.
The story of the mill
In the 11th century a creek was separated manually from the nearby Kövicses stream to the area now called Romkert ('garden of ruins') by the then inhabitated Cistercian monks. This creek was called Mill creek and served adequate amount of water output to the Monastery Mill (now called Szalay Mill). The mill plied the Cistercian monks and townspeople with flour products for years.
The fortune of the mill was fluctuant over the centuries: it was working effortlessly (as the only mill in town for some time periods) however the wooden mill building burnt down two times when on both occasions, devastating fires destroyed the area.
The mill house was rebuilt from stone for the third time in the eary 20th century and was purchased by the Szalay family, hence the name Szalay Mill.
In 2018 after several years of historic monumental excavation, renovation and building works had started on the rather ruined territory of the mill.
From 2021 the authentically restored, working Szalay Watermill welcomes their guests warm-heartedly as an interactive mill museum.
