History of the Koni Mill

​Ķoņu mill is located in the most remote corner of Northern Latvia - 7 km from Rūjiena and 5 km from the Latvian-Estonian border, on the bank of the Rūja river. Little historical data about the mill has survived.

The mill was built approximately 240 years ago. The mill was built by Baron Jem von Menzenkampf. The Menzenkampf family owned the mill until 1922, when after the agrarian reform, Maxis von Menzenkampf sold it to Ernest Läman.

At that moment, 2 workers were working in the mill, 2 water turbines, 2 grinding mills, a grist mill, a shot mill, a wool kettle and a spinning machine were in operation. In the later years, sawn roof boards, carded, spun and skeined wool, ground grain, beveled grain. To ensure continuous operation, an additional engine is installed, because the water power is not enough. There is no precise information whether electricity has also been produced.

The mill also operated during the war years, there is a report from 1944 that there are 2 workers working there, the equipment is 60% loaded due to the lack of workers. In 1943, 8000 kg of wool was processed. A carding machine and a hand-operated spinning machine with 160 bobbins and one hand-operated spinning machine with 10 bobbins are in operation.

In 1949, Ernest Lamani was sent to Siberia, but the mill came into the possession of the kolkhoz of Soviet union.

During the Soviet period, the Kőņu mill was managed by the collective farms "Pionieris", "Tālavetis" and the collective farm "Cīņa". It was the kolkhozes and their activities in sheep breeding and wool processing that helped to preserve mills and wool processing equipment.

In 1959, a wool spinning machine was installed, which was manufactured in Riga in 1922, in 1924 it was installed in Riga in Hartmani company "Rīgas tekstils", but then it was transferred to Ķoni.
 In the early 1960s, when the collective farm "Cīņa" operated the mill, the wool carding equipment was also replaced with larger ones brought from the Bļļu mill of Bērzaines parish - a place where wool was also processed. The equipment was manufactured in 1872 in the German city of Werdau in the machine factory of Robet Buchold. During this period, electric motors are installed to drive the equipment.

In 1992, at the beginning of the period of recovery of nationalized properties, Ernest's son Arnolds Lāmanis returned to Ķonu mill. He has been managing the recovered property for seven years.

On November 12, 1999, Arnolds Lāmanis sold the mill z/s "Krēsliņi" to its owner Ilgonis Čākurs, with the condition that the historical values ​​must be preserved.

From August 25, 2000, the mill produces electricity. A hydroelectric power station has been established in the basement of the mill.

On December 20, 2000, SIA "Ķoņu dzirnavas" was registered, the chairman of the board of which is Mirdza Čākure

In 2002, Kőņu mills participates in European cultural heritage days.

In 2004, the Industrial Heritage Foundation of Latvia recognized the Ķoņi mill as an industrial heritage.

In 2005, SIA "Ķoņ dzirnavas" built a new guest house on the foundations of the old barn, restored the dam and created a fish pond.

In 2012, Riga Technical University Faculty of Materials Science and Applied Chemistry presents an 18th-century-made-in-Poland-wool carding, carding, spinning machine-all in one. Such a facility is the only one in Latvia.

Mill as is one of the first mechanical enterprises in the countryside of Latvia and with its preserved equipment occupies a unique place in Latvia, as it is the only place where you can see wool carding, spinning, spinning and flour milling in action, where the ancient trades of grain milling and wool processing have been preserved. .