Znak cechu mlynáru / CoA of the Miller's Guild - Vodní mlýn ve Slupi / Slup water mill - Slup (South Moravia) - Coats of Arms on Waymarking.com

Depicted stucco coat of arms of the Miller's Guild (Cech mlynáru) decorates on the front facade of the late-Renaissance Water mill (vodní mlýn) in Slup.

The guilde were a medieval and early modern craft or trade associations that defended the rights and interests of its members, oversaw the quality and price of products, the education of disciples, and the passing of master exams. They also performed representative, religious and social tasks. One of traditional artisan guilds in Central Eueope were Miller's Guilds. Their guild szmbols and coats were connected with milling - mostly cog-wheels (water wheels), mill stones or damsels (kyprice*) were figures used in coats.

*Kyprice je zarízení sloužící k spojení behounu mlecího soustrojí s pohonným hrídelem a umožnující prenos tocivého pohybu / Damsel is a device used to connect the mill running stone of the grinding unit to the drive shaft and enable the transmission of rotary motion.

The National cultural monument Slup water mill (Vodní mlýn ve Slupi) is Renaissance large mill with four functional water wheels and a mill race. With its scope and architectural design, it is a unique and interesting technical monument.

The history of the water mill in Slup is closely connected with the development of the extensive Krhovice-Jaroslavice water race, which for centuries co-created the water conditions of the Dyje river basin on the border of Moravia and Austria and imprinted its seal on the form of the South Moravian borderland. It served as a source of propulsion for four mills: Neslovice, Micmanice, Slup, Oleksovicky and to fill ponds throughout the basin. The village of Slup (called Cule in the Middle Ages) is mentioned as early as 1228 under the privilege of King Premysl I. In the 16th and 18th centuries, the Slup mill, passing along with the village from one nobility to another, was one of the largest in Moravia. It became a free estate owned by millers' families in 1810 and was until 1945. The last owners acquired the mill in 1946 as a WWII-confiscation, brought it as a cooperative share in the collective farm and donated it to the Czechoslovak state in 1970.

The mill building is one of the most important and architecturally remarkable buildings of its kind in Central Europe. Originally, it was probably a Gothic building. The core of the current mill was built in 1512 and it was radically rebuilt in the late-Renaissance style in the early 17th century. Later modifications and reconstructions of the building did not disrupt this basic reconstruction as a whole, and today the mill building is a unique monument of Renaissance industrial construction.

Source: excerpted and translated from Wikipedia and National Heritage Institute portal.