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Founded: 1743Category: Miscellaneous historic sites in Denmark
Historical period: Absolutism (Denmark)
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Torkilstrup Windmill dates from 1743 and is one of the country's few post mills which still stand on their original site. Standing on a hill to the south of the village, the grain mill dates back to c. 1650. Hans Mortensen acquired it in 1726, operating it for the next 44 years. In 1743, he rebuilt the mill, recording the date on an interior beam around a heart containing his initials (HMSM) together with those of his wife (AMPD) Anna Margrethe Pedersdatter. Mortensen must have been a thrifty individual. On his death at the age of 65, in addition to a chiming clock, an iron stove, a four-poster bed, a Bible and a German prayerbook, he left an amount of over 793 rigsdaler, an exceptionally high amount of money for a farmer of his day. The mill remained in operation until 1945.
The rectangular mill stands on a fieldstone foundation. The wooden body of the mill is faced with shingles. The boat-shaped roof is also covered with shingles. It has latticed vanes with a span of 18 m, designed to be covered with sailcloth. The mill can be rotated by means of a manually operated yaw. For a period, a bakery was attached to the mill. The workings of the mill have been preserved and include grinders, an oat roller, a drum sieve, a cap wheel, a crown drive and a vane shaft.
Equipped with tables and benches for picnics, the area around the mill can be freely accessed. The mill itself is open to visitors on Ascension Day from 10 am to noon, on the third Sunday in June (Danish mill day) from 10 am to 2 pm, and on the day the harvest festival is celebrated in Torkilstrup Church. It can also be visited by appointment.
References:The Pilgrimage Church of Wies (Wieskirche) is an oval rococo church, designed in the late 1740s by Dominikus Zimmermann. It is located in the foothills of the Alps in the municipality of Steingaden.
The sanctuary of Wies is a pilgrimage church extraordinarily well-preserved in the beautiful setting of an Alpine valley, and is a perfect masterpiece of Rococo art and creative genius, as well as an exceptional testimony to a civilization that has disappeared.
The hamlet of Wies, in 1738, is said to have been the setting of a miracle in which tears were seen on a simple wooden figure of Christ mounted on a column that was no longer venerated by the Premonstratensian monks of the Abbey. A wooden chapel constructed in the fields housed the miraculous statue for some time. However, pilgrims from Germany, Austria, Bohemia, and even Italy became so numerous that the Abbot of the Premonstratensians of Steingaden decided to construct a splendid sanctuary.