Straupe mill

Accessible for the public only from the outside. Free visit.

Straupe mill, formerly called Mazstraupe watermill, is located in the centre of Straupe, on the right bank of the river Brasla. It is possible that this older mill in the area was built at the same time as Mazstarupe castle, ergo until 1408.  17th century Mazstraupe mill was destroyed but with restoration the characteristic fortification style was preserved.

Up until 20th century the mill was owned by noblemen. Around 1903 it was rented out to miller Johans Voldemārs Grīnbergs who began reconstruction works. Twenty years later Johans Voldemārs Grīnbergs travelled to London to meet with the baron and repurchased the mill.  He took a loan and started the reconstruction. A building next to the mill was made into a carpenter’s workshop, two more floors were added to the mill, the water wheel was replaced with a more powerful device - two turbines. One of them was used to power the mill, sawmill and wool spinning mill, but the other - to supply electricity to Lielstraupe and Mazstraupe manors and the mill itself. Later on, the mill was taken over by kolkhoz. In 1958, the dam was broken to help with land reclamation in Plācis, though it turned out that the calculations were inaccurate. The dam was never renewed but in 1997 Johan Voldemārs’ grandson Andris Grīnbergs returned to the mill as the owner. Since then he built a footbridge instead of the canal lock.
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