Mills That Burned Again Two Hundred Years Later

Mills have stood here from time immemorial; as early as 1396 there were ten of them, smaller ones of course. In 1576 the mills, the tower, the neighbouring Royal Baths and the municipal salt house on the Anna square all burned, and a Latin inscription was set above the tower doorway in memory of it. Fire struck the tower several times more — in 1582, in 1606 and again in 1648, when the people of Prague held off the Swedish assault on the bridge from here. The mills blazed up a second time under enemy fire during the Prussian siege of 1756, when a hail of cannonballs and incendiary shot rained on the unhappy city. And exactly two hundred years after the fight with the Swedes, on 16 June 1848, the mills burned once more. By then it had seemed that quiet would return to the city and the barricades were being cleared away — when, it is said, a shot was fired from these mills after eight in the evening and a new horror began. By order of General Windischgrätz the bombardment of the Old Town began, and the mills and the water tower were set alight with a pitch wreath. The fire raged amid the ceaseless crackle of muskets and thunder of guns; grain from the mills and burning beams flew as far as Wenceslas Square. The shooting did not stop until after midnight, and that dreadful night stayed long in the memory of Prague.