Watermill (Túristvándi, Hungary)

The Túristvándi watermill is located in Túristvánd, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County, on a branch of the Túr (Old Túr). The monument, still a functional watermill, today operates as a museum and is open to visitors year-round.

History

The first mill of the settlement is mentioned in the Váradi register, marking 1181 as the presumed completion date of the mill's construction. It is not known for certain whether this mill was a watermill; it could also have been a dry mill. The only information we have from the document about the mill's owner is his name, Eleus (Illés).

The settlement belonged for centuries to the estates of the Kölcsei (Kölcsey) and Kende families, who were from the Ond tribe's Szente-Mágocs lineage. A document from 1315 already mentions a watermill, which may have existed earlier. This mill presumably stood at its present location, near the manor centre and an important road junction. King Charles Robert, after Matthew Kölcsei did not send troops to the royal army for a campaign, deprived him of his estates. He and his descendants continuously tried to regain the estate, but only received it back from King Louis the Great after, in the summer of 1342‑43, they fought on the king’s side against Bogdan the voivode, who had been settled by King Louis into the Máramaros county and later fell into treason. The document dated 4 July 1344, issued along the Nyárád, designates Denes Kölcsey and his five sons, as well as their descendants, as the owners. Together with the manor centre, the mill passed to Denes’s eldest son, Miklós Kölcsey. According to some sources, Denes’s other son, born in 1352, John, divided the family’s children into two parts, the Kölcsey branch and the Kende branch. In 1481 the Kölcseys sold their share of the estate to the Perényi family, who, exchanging their Dobrón manor, also acquired the estates of István Erbewezy of Istvánd. Peter Kende received a royal donation deed in 1515, by which he could take possession of Istvánd and, together with it, the watermill.

After this, for a long time we know nothing about the mill’s history, only in 1752 does a three‑wheel watermill standing on the site of the earlier mill appear again, in a letter from the time of Maria Theresa, sent by a high‑ranking family member living in Sárközújlak, to thank for the excellent quality “flame flour”. According to the letter, the mill was still in the possession of the Kende family, which had meanwhile earned the title of barons. This building, erected before 1752, forms the present foundation. In 1927 significant modernization was carried out on the mill, when the two new cylinder seats were installed. The mill remained in the ownership of the Kende family until 1945. Its last known owner was Dr. Kölcsei Kende György. After the Second World War, although it was owned by a production cooperative and operated, its condition continuously deteriorated, parts of the building were removed, to the point that collapse was threatened. Restoration took place between 1962 and 1965. Afterwards it continued to operate under the cooperative’s aegis. In 1977 the water wheels, the central main shaft were replaced, and the water tank was repaired. The latest renovation occurred between 1995 and 1998. Since then, in the building declared a monument, a museum presenting the mill’s history and the craft has been operating.

Construction, operation

The original building was constructed in a folk style, a two‑storey structure with 11 windows, three balconies offering a good view of the river, topped with wooden shingles and two towers. The north and west sides of the building were built into the riverbank, but most of it is supported by piles. On the southern, river‑facing side of the building was placed the three large, undershot water wheels, which are rare in Central Europe. This means that, unlike most contemporary watermills, here the water does not flow over the paddles but drives the wheels from below, by the river’s current. The wheels’ diameter, including the paddles, is 6 metres 20 centimetres each. The main shafts are sixty centimetres in diameter. The shafts in the mill floor are connected via plain bearings to the “gear wheels” (cogwheels) that drive the cylinders and to small spindles. The gear wheels are two metres in diameter and have 62 teeth, while the spindle wheels have seven teeth. Also on the side are the water tank, the surge‑gate system and the millrace. The gates raised the water of this branch of the Túr River to ensure a constant water supply, but overflow channels and a floodgate were also created to discharge excess water. The millrace was intended to catch branches and straw carried by the river. Two of the three wheels drove the cylinders that performed grain grinding, producing flour or “peasant flour”. The third cylinder ground groats and bran, producing flour of varying fineness depending on the setting. The finest quality, most delicate flour was called “flame flour”. Apparently in the 1890s the roof was replaced with slate, which was restored to the original shingle roof during the 1977 renovation. During the 1927 modernization, the previous three cylinders were replaced by two cylinder seats, type 22, manufactured by Ganz in 1904. One cylinder seat continued to perform grinding, the other milling. At that time a dynamo was also installed to illuminate the mill and the miller’s house, which was still certainly operating in 1942. Next to the mill, on piles, stood a wooden‑walled building, the mill workshop. Here worn parts were repaired, new ones made, and the unusable grinding stones were re‑sharpened. A few metres downstream on the river a fixed bathing house made of planks was built for the baronial family. On the village‑side of the mill was the Fluder gate, an iron floodgate for diverting larger floods. Nearby stood the stone‑columned miller’s house, where the chief miller and his family lived. Two assistant millers worked beside the chief miller; if they did not reside in the miller’s house, they lived in a loft built above the workshop. Of these, only the mill building remains today.