Dolský Mlýn, Historic watermill ruins in Kamenická Stráň, Czech Republic

Dolský Mlýn is the ruins of an old mill standing where the Kamenice and Jetrichovicka Bela rivers meet, in the heart of the České Švýcarsko National Park. The remains show stone masonry and sandstone door frames with carved dates marking different construction phases of the building.

A mill on the Kamenice is documented as early as 1515, when the Scharfenstein estate was sold; a 1573 record describes a three-wheel mill grinding grain and driving a saw. The Pohl family bought it in 1696 and rebuilt it in baroque form in 1727, with further works in 1819 and 1845. Timber floating on the river repeatedly halted grinding, and the mill was abandoned after 1945.

The mill appears intact in the 1952 fairy-tale film Pyšná princezna (The Proud Princess), where a shot shows the whole building with its mill race. Later films used the ruins, among them Peklo s princeznou, Ztracený princ, Čertova nevěsta and Pravý rytíř, and the fantasy series Kolo času (2021).

You can reach the ruins by following marked hiking paths from nearby towns like Jetrichovice or along the Kamenice River from other starting points. The walk goes through the national park landscape, so wear sturdy shoes and bring weather protection.

The brewing and distilling concession came in 1888, not 1814, granted because timber floating on the Kamenice kept the mill from grinding. A steel-concrete bridge of 1902, the first of its kind in Bohemia, stands upstream by the Královský smrk.