Bergheim

The “Zievericher Mühle” mill on the Erft river offers an insight into the hydraulic engineering of bygone times: for centuries, the inhabitants of the surrounding villages and farms had their oil and flour produced here.

The mill first appears in the chronicles around 1243. At the beginning of the 18th century, the old mill was abandoned and replaced in 1715 by a new mill building a few hundred metres further north. This still exists today: it consists of a three-winged courtyard complex with an L-shaped farm building wing and a residential building.

The mill was shut down in 1950. The water wheel and the inventory are no longer there. Only the floodgate (= sluice gate), a wooden stand weir, has been preserved. The sluice gate is part of a weir that was specially developed for a mill on a flowing watercourse. Various lifting and rotating devices can be used to control the water flow for the mill.

The Zieverich sluice gate has eight sliding devices, known as flaps, which are moved by a roller drive via a rack and pinion. The structure is unique in the region. It was only restored and renovated by the owner family in 2012, ensuring that a piece of milling history lives on here.