European Paper Mills

Visit: the 19th of septembre 2024.

After a long trip through Hungary and Austria (flood of the century that caused the local train system to collapse) to visit my missing world heritage sites there, I stayed overnight -on my way back to Berlin- in the small town of Zwoenitz. The following morning I arrived at the paper mill shortly before 10.30am and was lucky enough to be able to join a guided group tour with around 20 pensioners. Mister Stoelzel, who has dedicated more than 50 years of his life to the paper mill, personally led a group of pensioners through the still-functioning facility. 

The mill was first mentioned in a document in 1568. With over 400 years the paper mill in Zwoenitz is the oldest of its kind in Europe,producing cardboard until 1973.

The entire process from filling the spherical cooker with waste paper to the usable cardboard is clearly visible by having the visitor walk from one production maschine to the next machine; machines that are still functioning (from the cooker to the mill for fine grinding then to the mill for coarse grinding to the cutting machine and the wetcard board squeezer to the 2 large upper attic floors, where the cardboard was dried (both cold and with heat).

All information boards are in german, english and czech.
There is a small screening cinema with a film from the 70s that does an excellent job of showing the cardboard manufacturing process at the …

I visited this tentative WHS in August 2020. The 17th century paper mill in Duszniki-Zdroj is only 1.5hrs away from the Church of Peace WHS in Swidnica or the Centennial Hall WHS in Wroclaw.

This paper mill environment is very similar to the Derwent Mills WHS in the UK even though the two-lane road leading to the town is much closer to the mill. If you visit by car, there is free parking a couple of metres before the mill proper next to a huge Chopin graffiti. The mill seems to be quite popular especially among Poles and already at 9am I wasn't the only one waiting to go in. From November to April it is open every day except Mondays, while during the rest of the year it is open every day. The paper-making demonstrations usually only start at 10am.

This paper mill combines fragments of the building from the mid-16th century extended in 1605 with the remaining part of the ground floor as well as the three storey attic. Paper was manufactured in the basement and dried in the attic. The ground floor served administrative and residential purposes. Since the paper mill belonged to noblemen, in the early 17th century it was given the form of a traditional manor house. In the 1740s, the western facade was adorned with a characteristic volute gable and on the eastern side a vast wooden drying room was added.

The entrance pavilion in the shape of a tower was …

Velké Losiny is quite interesting village located in the broader region of Jeseníky Mountains, the highest mountains of Moravia. The important period for Velké Losiny is the late renaissance – 16-17th Century, when the dukes of Žerotín, who were of the protestant faith, founded a castle, a church, spas with mineral springs, and also a paper mill there. All these structures were further maintained and developed in the later periods, and thus survived to our days.

From the point of view of both exterior and interior, the castle belongs to the most authentic structures from the second half of 16th Century in Czechia. The church in the center of the village, built around 1600, is also very nice, and I would recommend to all church-enthusiasts visiting also nearby villages of Maršíkov and Žárová with wooden churches from the same period.

The focal point of all tourists is however the paper mill founded in 1596. Its white buildings from the 19th Century with typical dark wooden roofs are located by the busy road and cannot be missed (check the photo in the previous review). The place is ready for masses of tourists, mostly from Czechia but also from abroad. There are a parking lot, the restaurant Losín for hungry tourists and a shop with the hand-made paper souvenirs in the separate small buildings around the paper mill.

The most of the tourists go to the guided tour No.1 (around 1 hour), which includes the museum of paper, the …

Handmade paper? I'm game. I bought a small supply of lovely paper from the shop and one would think this is a gimmick but some people actually order piles to their home and it took a long time to check out. Velké Losiny isn't unique in the world and there are several other locations in Europe that are similar so they finally started talking to other sites in Germany, Poland and France. A serial combination has a better chance and alone I would have dismissed it as "nice but not good enough". Now that this is perhaps a serious contender I felt to add a review after all.

Inside is a great museum. Keep in mind I went a couple of years ago and maybe things have changed but tours were only in Czech with audio guide in other languages. You can point at a dot in the room to start the info and they often don't show that clearly, something they should improve on. The information you get is good though. There are also 2 kind of tours, 30 and 60 minutes, unfortunately I don't quite remember which one I took.

The tour starts with information on paper, as we know it's a Chinese invention and they have Chinese cartoons to show it, cute. A chart shows the spread from China across the Middle-East and into southern Europe. The next parts of the museum are the machines used to make the paper in the mill. At one …

The paper mill is an interesting building. It is the only remaining hand made paper mill in Czech republic. Visit is not so long so you can try to make your own paper after the visit :)

Other important sights are the Castle in Velke Losiny and two wooden churches from 1609 in villages Marikov (3km) and Razova (4km).

As well there are spa in the same village.