Mills used to be an important part of traditional rural life, as they ensured grinding cereal grains and therefore basic foodstuff in a largely self-sufficient society. Although miller's trade never existed as an independent trade, it did represent an important additional earnings for farms.
Mills in this area of Slovenia were first mentionned in written sources in the 11th century, whereas the first name dates back to the year 1425 for a mill in Koča vas. They used to be the noblemen and ecclesiastic property and the millers as their tenants.
Sawmills appeared much later than mills, as handsaw timber cutting was kept into the 20th century. Timber cutting is directly linked to exploitation of vast forests and the blossoming of wood trade, especially after the inauguration of the south railroad from Vienna to Trieste in the year 1857.
Real growth of miller's trade and timber cutting in Lož valley occured at the break of the 19th and the 20th century, when there were no less than eleven homesteads in posession of a mill and/or a sawmill turned by water power. Appropriate water levels enabled the use of water power of the Veliki Obrh (Great Obrh) brook and for some of the Mali Obrh (Small Obrh) brook aswell. The Obrh at the Golobina sinkhole cave springs from the Viševek part of the Brežiček stream at Bajer. At about the same time the first steam sawmills were set in motion (at the Žagar homestead in Markovec village, the Kovač and the Schönburg-Waldenburg castle sawmill at Stari trg).
The last of the old water sawmills in the Lož valley was last active in 1983 in Markovec village. The entire mill mechanism of the Bajer mill - https://www.loskadolina.info/en/the-bajer-homestead.html - is still preserved. The 'Venetian mill' at Bajer and a water mill at Žaga are still active. Viewing upon prior arrangement.
ŽAGA V ŽAGI, Vrhnika pri Ložu 39b
Zavod Ars Viva Podcerkev 24
1386 Stari trg pri Ložu
T: +386 (0)64 293 200, +386 (0)41 741 750
E: youthostel.arsviva@gmail.com
www.youth-hostel-ars-viva.si
MLIN IN ŽAGA V BAJERJU
Kmetija Bajer Viševek 40
1386 Stari trg pri Ložu
T: +386 (0)31 516 724, +386 (0)31 333 407
E: bajerjanja@gmail.com