Visited:30. 9. 2021
History:The building No. 456 in 5. května Street (formerly Jahnova Street) in the Špitálské suburb of Kadan is often referred to as the so-called Luční mlýn. Now it is part of the premises of the local agricultural school, but it used to be one of the annexed buildings of the already mentioned Luční mlýn on the Bystřica river. The historic Luční mlýn, then one of several milling facilities on the Bystřice River in the Špitálské suburb of Kadani, was mentioned in written sources as early as 1470. Opposite the Luční mill there was a stone bridge over the Bystřice River and behind it in the suburban wall the so-called Luční gate, demolished in 1878, which was inhabited by a gravedigger. In 1596, for example, a certain Peter Voytt is mentioned in the town documents in this service. Between 1714 and 1718, the Luční mill was the property of the imperial swift Wolfgang Ernst Thumsecker. In 1714, he had a statue of St. Sebastian erected at his own expense in front of the mill, which is now located on the castle parkland in the southern part of the town fortifications near Kadan Castle. In 1718, the Luční mill burnt down, and it was also later destroyed by fire in 1720 and 1792. The last private owner of the Luční mill was the miller Karl Gustav Schmiedl from Vejprty in the Ore Mountains. In 1870, the local agricultural school bought the mill building, had a new extension added to it, now building no. 456, and on 16 September 1873 the new classrooms were inaugurated. On the surrounding land, which formed the grounds of the agricultural school, there was an orchard, vegetable beds, a botanical garden with an experimental hop garden equipped with a fountain, a chemical laboratory and a meteorological station. In the Kadaň region, the most important personality of the agricultural school at that time was its director, Dr. Anton Schneider (1841-1900), a native of Karlovy Vary, who was particularly popular in the rural areas of the entire region thanks to his popular lectures for peasants and farmers. In 1889, the entire premises were expensively reconstructed, and when the new Art Nouveau building of the Royal Czech Agricultural High School was opened in 1904, the Luční mlýn served only as a so-called winter school, whose premises were mainly used for organising professional courses for farmers from the surrounding area. During the First World War, the Luční mlýn served temporarily as one of the barracks buildings of the 74th Infantry Regiment of the Austro-Hungarian Army. It is probable that this building may have been the temporary home of some conscripts serving in Kadan, who now belong to the Czech cultural elite of the time. Among them we can name, for example, the actor Vojta Matys, the novelist Jaroslav Havlíček, the journalist Arne Laurin, the artist and writer Josef Čapek or the photographer Josef Sudek, who started taking his first photographs in Kadan. Josef Čapek refers to his stay in Kadan in his correspondence from that time. It was bad in Kadan, he writes in one of his letters addressed to his fiancée Jarmila Pospíšilová. Although he was not very happy in Kadan, he mentions in another letter that he had the most beautiful dreams there. Čapek's experiences gained during the war in Kadan are reflected, among other things, in the story "Rescue" from 1917, included in the cubist-expressionist short story collection Lelio. In the gable of the house No. 456 there is a complex and nowadays rather worn-out house sign. In the centre of this sign is a beehive surrounded by several attributes referring to agricultural work and its fruits. The house sign depicts a sheaf of grain, a plough or a bunch of grapes. All these symbols, through the lens of ancient iconography, refer to Demeter, the Greek goddess of the fertility of the earth and agriculture. In Christian iconography, the beehive, or rather the bee, is considered one of the allusions to Jesus Christ. The beehive is also generally recognised as a symbol of scholarship, orderliness and industriousness. The house sign is neo-Baroque and was probably placed here as early as 1873, when the building was added to the so-called Luční mill for the needs of the former agricultural school. In 1919, a Czech municipal school was established here, with the teacher František Šabata in charge. In 1928, Jaroslav František Urban joined the school and a year later became the first headmaster of the newly founded Czech burgher school. Urban transformed the school in the former Luční mlýn into an important centre of the Czech minority in Kadan and during the holidays he ran a student dormitory, which was also frequented by Prague youth. Urban himself was also a prominent figure in the public and cultural life of Kadan, among other things he was the author of the three-volume regional bestseller Potulky Kadaňskem / Wanderings in Kadan from 1935-1936. The original buildings of the Luční mlýn mill fell into ruin in 1974, when they were demolished together with most of the buildings of the Špitálské suburb during the communist regime. The Bystřice River, which was an integral part of the suburban development, was also diverted into underground pipes in the section from the current Roosevelt Gardens to the Ohře River, in the area where the so-called Bystřický Mostek (Bystřice Bridge) was recently restored, near the so-called Steinkopf Mill, which is currently undergoing reconstruction and is to be used as a guesthouse with a pub and a brewery. At least the annex, the present building no. 456, which has been given the historical name of Luční mlýn, has avoided this insensitive redevelopment.
Source:https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lu%C4%8Dn%C3%AD_ml%C3%BDn_(Kada%C5%88)
Impressions:A beautiful building, which is the last remnant of the local mill.
