Located in Tomaška vas near Slovenj Gradec on the bank of the Mislinja river and some distance away from the Herc family’s homestead is a monument protection complex comprising a mill building, a saw with »rače« and a dam. The two buildings were built around 1914 by Valentin and Terezija Laure, owners of the Herc homestead. Working in the mill, and especially in the sawmill, represented an important source of additional income for the farm. In the Mislinja valley milling trade reached its last peak before World War II, when eight sawmills and seven mills were operating between Turiška vas and Šmartno, which is a distance of only a few kilometres. The Herc mill’s owners stopped grinding grain and corn in 1983 and after 1991, when sawing activity was discontinued and the “rače” was no longer maintained, the buildings were slowly becoming dilapidated. The saw is a Venetian saw with a wooden mechanism with cylinders (“voz na valcne”) and a chain for transmission to deliver logs to the saw’s blade. The mechanism for directing the water onto the millwheel is controlled from the sawmill building. A mighty drive mechanism with quadruple transmission, from which the local name “firzac” saw originates, is located in the basement. A museum display is set up in the sawmill’s residential area (called “žagna uta”) to present the living environment of a sawmill worker during the WWII period. An old mill mechanism called “verk” with a chiselled ornament on the “pajtlkašta” (container for flour) and all the characteristic milling tools have been reserved in the mill building.
The decaying mill and sawmill buildings received two thorough renovations in 1999 – 2000 and 2009. The Šmartno Tourist and Beautification Society, as well as the Vedrin Tourist and Sports Society cooperate with the museum in planning tourist activities.
Gallery
Information
 | LOKACIJA | Šmartno pri Slovenj Gradcu, Tomaška vas | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ODPRTO | tours possible with prior notification | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | KONTAKT | +386 2 62 12 520 (reception), +386 41 332 964 (Albert Kotnik) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | E-POŠTA | info.sg@kpm.si | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | VSTOPNINA |
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