Młyńska Island—the heart of Bydgoszcz. A green enclave right in the center of this vibrant city of 360,000. So far, it has remained untouched by the voracious grip of modern civilization. It’s almost unbelievable! A park, avenues lined with old trees: chestnut and linden. Large lawns, paths with benches, the sound of water rushing down the weir and culvert. Water all around.

Amid the greenery on Mill Island, there are also houses. Scattered somewhat haphazardly, almost all of them are old and historic. They are what define the island’s unique character and atmosphere: former mills, grain warehouses, barracks, and granaries. They form an extraordinary, historic industrial landscape. Crossing the boundary of Mill Island via the bridge from Niedźwiedzia Street, from the Old Market Square, or via the causeway from the bridges on Focha Street, it’s as if we were crossing a boundary of time...

The “most recent” era, during which Mill Island was revitalized—through a joint effort by the City and European funds, including the so-called Norwegian Fund—to become the city’s most popular destination. The Island’s contemporary revitalization has been subtly integrated through, among other things, modern museums, dining options, water transportation, recreation on the grass and at the playground, and walking paths connected by modern footbridges leading off the island to other central parts of Bydgoszcz.

MŁYŃSKA ISLAND – THE “FLOATING” MINT

Long ago, even before coins began to be minted for the Polish king on Bydgoszcz’s Mill Island, there were here the Church Mill—mentioned as early as before 1408—and the large Starościński Mill dating from 1541, as well as the City Bathhouse and a sawmill. However, it was not until the royal mint was established that Bydgoszcz truly stood out on the map of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

“To all and to each individually, namely to our starosts and their deputies—we have entrusted the administration and supervision of the Bydgoszcz mint...” and further: “We therefore command that no one usurp the prerogative of prohibiting what belongs to us, and that everyone accept the Bydgoszcz coin as beyond suspicion”. So decreed King Sigismund III Vasa in 1614, when the Bydgoszcz Mint, alongside the Kraków Mint, supplied coins for the entire Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

It is certain that from 1594 (and perhaps even earlier), a private mint owned by a certain Stanisław Cikowski operated here by royal privilege. Cikowski brought in German craftsmen from nearby Poznań. And so a steady stream of szelągs, orts, thalers, złotówkas—that is, tymfs and szóstaks—flowed from the Bydgoszcz Mint... A resolution of the Senate meeting in Grodno in 1693 referred to the Mint no longer as private but as Royal:

“The Bydgoszcz Mint, built on the water and having scarcely an equal in Europe, deserves nothing more than to be preserved from all ruin by the noble Grand Crown Treasurer. To what extent should the expenses for this be borne by the Crown Treasury in accordance with justice?"

It was a massive complex that occupied the entire eastern part of today’s island up to Międzywodzie (at that time, there were as many as three islands, which were later connected). The medieval mint consisted of over a dozen buildings of various sizes and numerous facilities. For centuries, despite the fact that the mint was almost adjacent to the city, the market square, and the parish church, it remained strictly isolated due to the specific nature of its production. Although the entire facility was located on an island, it was additionally surrounded on the east—facing the city—and on the north by a wall and, in part, by a sturdy wooden fence. One entered the island through the Mint Gate as if entering a separate town (the gate was located behind the cathedral, near what is now known as the White Granary). Immediately beyond the Mint Gate, already on the island, stood the first buildings of the factory complex—those of lesser importance, auxiliary structures, and warehouses—as well as a forge. In the forge—also known as the coin-blasting shop or locksmith’s shop—blanks for future coins were prepared. Damaged tools were also repaired here, nails were made, and screws were threaded. The locksmith’s apartment was located in the attic, and in front of the smithy’s entrance stood a stone with a grinding crank and a table for threading screws. After the mint’s closure, the smithy was converted into the miller’s house (later known as the “old miller’s house”). Opposite the smithy stood a half-timbered carriage house, and further on, right on the shore of Międzywodzie, stood a brick stable. These four buildings served as a sort of vestibule to the main industrial complex. Further south, in the vicinity of today’s Karczma Młyńska and the museum’s Red Granary, the main mint complex was concentrated. The most important structure was the rolling mill with its shearing shop. As many as five of the rolling mill’s wheels were driven by the current of the Międzywodzie River. The mill was a wooden log-frame structure. Metal ingots were rolled inside the mill. In the shearing shop—also known as the cutting shop—there were five workstations for cutting sheet metal, and ingots and metals were weighed there.

From the front, the rolling mill had a row of arcades. Next to the rolling mill, the most important building was the “Kamienica with the striking room.” This is where the final stage of coin production took place. In the lower part of the “house,” coins were struck, and in the attic there were as many as 39 crucibles for melting silver. The striking room contained two small and two large presses, as well as a coin-striking die housed in a barrel. Remnants of the House have survived in the basements of the current Mennica 4 building. A half-timbered kitchen, serving all the mint’s employees, was attached to the House on its southern gable end. In addition to these main structures, there was also a smelting house, a bleaching house, an ash house, and a charcoal kiln. Near today’s bridge stood the “Dworek,” the most heavily guarded building—also known as the Treasury—where bullion reserves and mint dies were stored; upstairs was the residence of the wardein, or mint manager.

It was truly a large factory—one of the largest, if not the largest, in the 17th- and 18th-century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. At that time, only a few houses in Bydgoszcz were built of brick or half-timbered. In contrast, even the buildings at the mint that served secondary economic functions were massive. The Royal Mint in Bydgoszcz produced a wide variety of coins. From mass-produced small change—the so-called “tymfy” and “boratynek”—through thalers, to coins and medals of high metallic and artistic value. What was the approximate scale of production at the Bydgoszcz Mint? Very large by the standards of the time. A single coin maker would process about 60 kilograms of silver per day. There were about 12–15 coin makers working there, so approximately 620–900 kilograms of silver were processed into coins daily in Bydgoszcz. However, how did this compare to the quantity of coins—mostly small denominations, and often of substandard value? It is very difficult to say. Suffice it to say that “boratynki” truly flooded the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and its “surrounding areas.” At one point, this sparked strong protests from the nobility in the Sejm, which even sought to ban the production of small coins. During a period when the Kingdom’s treasury needed to be rescued, the proportion of precious metal (silver) in the coins was reduced with the Sejm’s approval. The coins thus became, in a sense, less equivalent in material value to their purchasing power. This was the case with the “boratynki” and “tymfy.” When the Tymf brothers, leaseholders of the Bydgoszcz mint, went too far in reducing the silver content in coins, they were exiled, but the saying “a good joke is worth a tymfa” remained.

The mint likely ceased operations around 1702, but it was not until 1765 that the Sejm’s Treasury Commission ordered an inventory of the Bydgoszcz mint to be drawn up and everything that remained of it to be sent to Warsaw. The mint dies were sent back to the capital, and the abandoned buildings fell into disrepair, though some continued to be used for other purposes into the 18th and 19th centuries.

MŁYŃSKA ISLAND – the source of the BYDGOSZCZ CANAL

In the 18th century, Bydgoszcz was not in the best economic condition. Following epidemics and military campaigns, a very severe economic downturn ensued. The city nearly collapsed. The old mint buildings, too, were either demolished or, when poorly maintained, fell into ruin. A new, better era for Mill Island began with the launch of an extraordinary, European-scale project of immense proportions. King Frederick II of Prussia, immediately after occupying Bydgoszcz during the First Partition of Poland in 1772, undertook the implementation of bold ideas conceived by engineers under our last king, Stanisław August Poniatowski—to connect the natural waterways of Eastern and Western Europe. Construction of the Bydgoszcz Canal began. From then on, the Island became the center of the Royal Mills, which supplied the Prussian army, and the neighboring First City Lock opened up what was then the “highway” (given its economic importance, this comparison is truly no exaggeration)—albeit a waterway—to Western Europe. Work on the canal began in 1774, starting precisely with the reconstruction of the water system within the Brda River bend and Mill Island. At that time, the previously wide channel of the Upper Brda was narrowed, regulated, and bisected by the so-called City Lock. Further north, the Brda River connected via the City Lock to the Bydgoszcz Canal, which ran westward to the Noteć River, the Oder River, Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg, and Amsterdam...

During the construction of the first urban section of the Bydgoszcz Canal, a causeway was built leading from Mill Island to the current bridges on Focha Street. It was likely also at that time that rows of young saplings were planted along the causeway; today, more than two hundred years later, they form a remarkable green tunnel right in the heart of the city. It was also then that a third, very important access point to the Island was created from the Market Square side, along the extension of Niedźwiedzia Street; the so-called Mill Bridge was built around 1791, and the current bridge roughly follows its location. There was no longer any need to isolate the Island from the city. In 1789, the massive Royal Granaries were built on the other side of Mill Island. They burned down during the Red Army’s entry into Bydgoszcz in January 1945, but made way for today’s Opera Nova.

When the Royal Granaries were erected, they had to be connected to Mill Island, where mills and other industrial facilities were located. To this end, around 1789, the Magazynowy Bridge—often called the Prowiantowy Bridge—was built; as part of the city’s revitalization, it has been recreated as a modern pedestrian footbridge connecting the Old Town with Opera Nova. It was also then that the road to the Warehouse Bridge was built. The cobblestone section has survived to this day next to the so-called White Granary, built in 1789. Most likely as early as 1772, the New Miller’s House, a small single-story building (currently the building at Mennica 8), was erected. Still in the 18th century, a much larger administrative building was constructed next to it (the current building at Mennica 6) was built next to it. Until the 18th century, large areas in the center of Mill Island were still used as the Townspeople’s Gardens, but it appears these were not carefully maintained orchards or gardens, but rather ordinary meadows. The construction of the Bydgoszcz Canal and the associated transshipment port, the Timber Port, and the Royal Mills complex in the late 18th century was an investment on a scale unprecedented at the time. Bydgoszcz began to transform into a modern industrial and commercial city.

MŁYŃSKA ISLAND—The Age of Steam

The introduction of steam-powered and later electric machinery forced the modernization of existing facilities. Entirely new structures also appeared. Much changed at the base of the island near the present-day Farny Weir. In the 1840s, two mills were built here: “Wilhelm” (now a grist mill) and “Rudolf.” Both were thoroughly rebuilt—in fact, practically rebuilt from scratch—at the end of the 19th century, precisely in connection with the introduction of electrical equipment. Even before the mid-19th century, in 1849, a complex of the largest structures on Mill Island was built, the so-called “Rother’s Mills.” On the site of an ancient mint (the most important one during the medieval era of the Bydgoszcz Mint), in 1861, the “Henryk” Mill was replaced by the modern Camphausen Mill was built in 1861 on the site of the “Henryk” mill, designed by architect Wolf; the residents of Bydgoszcz now refer to it as the Red Granary. Both the Rother Mills and the Camphausen Mill featured steam boilers in addition to water turbines, and in 1886, electricity was introduced to the mills on Mill Island. At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, a new administrative building with modest Art Nouveau features was erected on the island—today’s Mennica 7 building. Later in the 20th century, in 1936, the sports center was established. In 2008, an international architectural competition was announced for a new marina for athletes and water sports enthusiasts. By 2012, an exceptionally interesting contemporary building had been constructed, one that blends perfectly with the existing character of Mill Island.

Unfortunately, after World War II, Międzywodzie—the island’s most important watercourse, which for centuries had powered industrial machinery—was filled in.

Recently, as part of the revitalization of Mill Island, Międzywodzie was reconstructed as a striking, cascading stream flanked by walking paths reminiscent of the historic footbridges. On the site of the former townspeople’s gardens, allotment gardens were established—in keeping with tradition, so to speak—and have since been transformed into a modern park. The park also surrounds the bend of the island on the side facing Bydgoszcz’s Venice. However, this is a park where you can freely play ringo or volleyball, relax on the grass, play with the kids at the playground, organize a concert, an outdoor performance, and more. A park with an amphitheater, a beach overlooking the Opera House, the cathedral, and “Bydgoszcz Venice”....

The Bydgoszcz Museum’s exhibitions have found their ideal home in the old granaries and mills. The Archaeological Collections are housed in the White Granary, while the Red Granary currently houses the Modern Art Gallery. A mid-19th-century granary for bagged grain in the building at 1 Mennica Street has been beautifully converted into the stylish “Karczma Młyńska.” The building at 6 Mennica Street, following careful renovation and conservation work, has been designated as the Museum Education Center. This is remarkable. It is truly exceptional that, in the center of a large, modern, and crowded city at the beginning of the 21st century, an area has survived in a form preserved from nearly two centuries ago—and in some parts, even from much earlier times! It is equally remarkable that, thanks to the Island’s well-managed revitalization and the assignment of appropriate functions to it, this area has become the most frequently visited place in Bydgoszcz. The contemporary merits of Bydgoszcz’s Mill Island have also been recognized beyond the city’s borders and honored with numerous national awards. The fact that this is a place that stands out—even on a European scale—was already known centuries ago, for it was even recorded in a royal charter:

“The Bydgoszcz Mint, built on the water, has scarcely an equal in Europe....”

Mill Island

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