Kołaczew Water Mill in Złoty Potok

The name is said to come from "kołatanie", the rhythmic clatter of the working water wheel. The wooden Kołaczew mill in Złoty Potok stands on the upper course of the Wiercica stream, where it flows out of the Green Pond (Staw Zielony). The present building dates from 1807, but there was a mill here in the Middle Ages: it is first recorded in 1473. Of the six water mills that once worked on the Wiercica around Złoty Potok, this is the only one left.

More than five centuries by one pond

In 1473 the miller here was Piotr Palis and the owner the knight Piotr Potocki of the Szreniawa coat of arms. The dyke that holds back the Green Pond provided the fall of water needed to drive the wheel. The tall timber building went up in 1807 as part of the Złoty Potok estate, and on the 1839 map of the Kingdom of Poland it already appears under the name Kołaczew. In the time of the Raczyński family, owners of Złoty Potok, the mill was run by M. Chuściel and between the wars by his daughter. After a fire it was rebuilt in 1928.

From wheel to turbine

After the Second World War the mill was nationalised and run by a local cooperative. In the 1950s the water wheel was removed and the machinery switched to electric power. Today the mill is privately owned and no longer works; a Pelton turbine survives inside. It is part of the Wooden Architecture Route of the Silesian Voivodeship.

What is nearby

The mill lies within the Parkowe nature reserve in the Eagles' Nests Landscape Park. The Green Pond is also nicknamed "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Two of the Jura's main trails run along the dyke by the mill – the red Eagles' Nests Trail and the yellow Zamonit Trail – as well as the Zygmunt Krasiński cycle route. Nearby are Bear Grotto (Grota Niedźwiedzia), the Spring of Fulfilled Dreams, an obelisk to Major Jan Wrzosek, who fell here in the first days of the Second World War, and a little further on the Amerykan pond, the early medieval Wały hillfort and a trout farm.

Tripto tip

The mill stands at ul. Kościuszki 77, on regional road 793, about 1.5 km south-west of the centre of Złoty Potok. As it is private property, view it from the road and the dyke – the interior is not open to visitors. The timber building is easy to see from the Green Pond dyke, which carries the marked trails, so you do not need to leave the route. The mill itself is a short 10–15-minute stop, but it fits perfectly into a walk through the Parkowe reserve and the Wiercica Valley, combined with a visit to the Krasiński Manor museum.