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Using water power to make the mill run is a technique already established in our latitudes in the early Middle Ages, long before windmills came to us from the Netherlands.
We first learn about the Rasteder watermill from the chronicle of the local Benedictine monastery.
In the year 1280, it is recorded that Abbot Otto acquired the water mill and the adjacent farm for the self-sufficiency of the pious monks.
Like the monastery, the old mill building from that time no longer exists. But here you can see a successor building exactly at the location of the medieval mill! The design of the building dates from the middle of the 19th century. The Grand Duke Paul Friedrich August, who reigned at the time, had the mill renovated in the so-called "Schweizerhaus" style.
As the name suggests, the carved wooden balustrades were intended to give the façade the charm of Alpine farmhouses. Such a design was a trend of the time, as late Romanticism and Biedermeier idealised the Alpine region as the epitome of a healthy and natural country life. Accordingly, the emerging Alpine tourism was also considered particularly appealing.
The Grand Duke had a salon set up on the upper floor of the mill. Members of the family and their guests enjoyed stopping on their excursions through the park. For a long time, however, the ground remained leased to a miller who, like his predecessors, ground the grain of the surrounding farmers to supply the Grand Duke's household. But that was more than a century ago.
Today, the former mill is privately owned. A whole series of structural elements have been renovated in the meantime, but the old mill wheel can still be seen. The mill has been used as a restaurant since 1980, and the extension at the back with the restaurant dates from 1989.