Blåbæk Møller: Both wind and water

If you’re anywhere near Faxe, you should absolutely drive over to see Blåbæk Møller – and it’s ‘møller,’ not ‘mølle,’ because there’s both a windmill and a watermill. In the 19th century, it was common to have a watermill and a windmill in the same place. The watermill is the older of the two and is first mentioned in a source from 1472. It was rebuilt after being destroyed during the Swedish wars in the 1600s.

The present mill from 1838 is a handsome half-timbered building with a thatched roof. The windmill is a Dutch mill, in which the cap and sails can be turned to face the wind. It was Christian IV who brought the Dutch mills to Denmark, though they did not truly become widespread until the 1700s. You can walk around and beneath the windmill, because beneath it runs a narrow cobblestone road.