History of Spindleruv Mlyn

Špindlerův Mlýn is the best known mountain center in Czech republic, but hardly anybody knows, that it got this name almost by chance. Just a little and we could travel to Hollmans or Špalt Chalets, Kraus or Vřetenský Mill or most probably to the town of St. Peter. But clarks of Prague and later of Wienna decided differently by an oversight.

The Upper Elbe Walley had been permanently settled as lately as in 16th century for timber harvesting and mineral extractions reason. Maybe the place with more house-building – a colony called Svatý Petr (St. Peter), where the prospectors started their works at 1516, is even older. Other settlements, founded by wood cutters, hadnot more than few chalets. St. Peter and hamlets belonged administratively to the upper part of Vrchlabí. On the junction of Elbe river and St. Peters brook the woodcutter´s Hollman family cleared the forest and changed it at meadow enclave. At 1784 there was only five chalets, mill and gamekeeper's house. The small colony amazingly had not got the name of its founder, which was common in Giant Mountains, but was called Spalte Bauden (Log Chalets), maybe according to the fact, that the wood cutters had got one log of wood daily as livery, in german language „Spalte“. The mill with flume on the river of Elbe was built at 1734. It was said to had been removed on that place from St. Peter. In all like we could not find, if the family of Špindler posessed the mill at the original place already or just after the move to Spalte Bauden (Log Chalets).

The Špindler family members used to be minors and wood cutters and together with Hollmans, Erlebachs, Adolfs, Bradlers and Krauss families belonged to the first settlers of this land. The removing of the mill was the first but not last weakening of St. Peter for the benefit of Log Chalets. It brought along not only silver, copper and arsenic excavations ending below the Hogback hill, but also the more positive terrain and climatic conditions in the wide bottom land of Elbe. The decisive factor for the inception of the village was the building of the church. The Austrich emperor Josef II. had liquidated a lot of monasteries, but with the amount he collected this way he helped many remote places to posess their own churches and clerical service.

When the local highlanders found that also the neighbour village Velká Úpa and even Malá Úpa posessed their own churche, they assembled at 1784 in the mill originally constructed by Špindlers, to write a humble claim to the emperor and brought it personally to Wienna. As they did not get the licence, at 1787 the cotter Karel Hollmann from St. Peter and the miller Josef Kraus from Log Chalets set out to Wienna with the letter again. And they failed again. But after the death of Josef II. asked the highlanders the third time and the new emperor František I. met their wishes. On 13. July 1793 he isued the patent, which permitted the church construction and foundation of the parish. As all the three requests had been written in the mill known as Špindler´s or shortly Špindl´s, and there was no other address in the letters, the emperor´s patent was edited for the „Municipality of Špindel´s mill“. This way the villlage got the name, which survived until now. Right at 1793 the settlers built a small wooden church and removed there the divine service from St. Peter. The St. Peter´s chapel, founded by the Earl Rudolf Morzin in the middle of 17th century, was even pulled down afterwards.

The big brick church of St. Peter was consecrated at 1807 and is well-preserved without any modification until now. The only memory of the original St. Peter´s chapel is the icone of st. Peter. It could be this one that hangs on the left hand side of the altar. The church is open daily, but because of safety factor you can see the inside through the lattice from the back side only. The main part of the church is open by the divine service on Sundays.

The other significant prewar period of the town Špindlerův Mlýn was the balneal epoch. Not only statute of aerotherapeutic spa, excellent service and procedures, but also an ideal, sufficiently ventilated location of the centre helped considerably by convalescence after grave pulmonary disease, typhus, pneumonia and pleuritis, chronic rheumatism and fibrositis, by the treatment of choromania, of respiratory systém, indigestion and other diseases.

The Cech name of the village Spindelmühle evolved by a little bit knotty way. At 1842 all the properties in the mountain village were put into the estate plan. By this occasion was for the first time oficially used the german name, allotted by the imperial bookkeepers. The land surveyors, as they did not know the context, translated this name as Vřetenský Mlýn (Spool mill), according to the fact, that the german word „Spindel“ means „vřeteno“ in czech („spool“ in english). Curiously enough this copycat translation took foot in all the official documents and after the formation of Czechoslovakia became an official name of the mountain village. Thereby it got to the bilingual postal stamps „Vřetenský mlýn – Spindelmühle“. As lately as at 1922 all this matter had been studied and described in detail by the executive head of Giant Mountain part of Czech turists club Mr. Jindřich Ambrož, who was very familiar with the region. According to his proposal the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Prague changed the name of the village at „Špindlerův Mlýn – Spindlermühle“ (Spindler´s Mill) by the edict dated on 23. 6. 1923. Three hundred years long procedure of the name formation has been finished by the white collars again.

It is funny, that still at the time of Jindřich Ambrož, who prepared the proposal of the name adjustment, many highlanders and particularly old people from Vrchlabí used to call the village „St. Peter“. One of the oldest Giant mountain´s name had been deep-rooted well.