Hajniš Mill in Třebechovice will not be a monument, the city wants to sell it

Třebechovice pod Orebem – Hajniš Mill in Třebechovice pod Orebem in the Hradec Králové region will not be a cultural monument. After six years of proceedings, this was decided by Minister of Culture Martin Baxa. The leadership of Třebechovice welcomes the ministry's step, as they want to sell the unused and deteriorating building to an investor for conversion into apartments, Hradecký Deník and Česká televize reported. The dilapidated mill was purchased by the town hall in 2015. The original plan was to demolish it and build an intersection in its place to provide access to a parking lot and an ice hockey stadium.

The Ministry of Culture declared the mill a monument three times, but the town always appealed against it. The administrative proceedings were conducted by the office at the initiative of the Society for the Protection of Monuments in Eastern Bohemia. Now, the ministry has definitively decided that the complex of buildings does not merit protection. The office justified this by the architecturally average nature of the building for its time and the observation that the original machinery has not survived on site, and the mill race is also buried.

By the end of August, the town hall intends to offer the mill for sale. The new owner should preserve the most intact part of the building in its original industrial style. "There should be modern loft apartments with many of the original elements of the building exposed," said Mayor Roman Drašnar (Independent) to the newspaper.

Councilwoman Klára Novotná, who fought for the preservation of the mill, is disappointed by the ministry's decision. "My intention was from the start to highlight the significance and uniqueness of this building," she told the newspaper. According to her, the renovation of the property as envisioned by the investor will destroy the genius loci and the charm of the expansive internal mill spaces.

The first written mention of the mill in this location dates back to 1651, and the building gradually changed its appearance; for example, in 1895, a renovation of the residential building took place. In 1943, the mill was purchased by the Hajniš family, who had the house nationalized after the war and regained the property in 1989. The current structure consists of the original part of the building from 1888 and later extensions. The internal fittings of the mill are missing, and some parts are collapsed.