The flaxkiln of the castle Dorenburg

One of the most important cultivated plants of the Lower Rhine region was flax. The flax seeds were used to make oil and the fibers of the plant were used to spin linen. Until the fibers could be spun to fabric many things had to be done, among them drying the stem of the plant. This was either done in a bakehouse, in which the flax was laid into the oven after baking, or in a specially built flaxkiln. Since the fire danger was very high in the surrounding area of the farms, it was ruled in the middle of the 18th century that the flax was only allowed to be dried if it there was a sufficient distance to the residential buildings.

The flaxkiln of the castle Dorenburg was constructed in the 19th century. After its original usage it was transformed into a bakehouse and later into a store-house. The former ovens at the side were removed. At the beginning of the 19th century the much cheaper cotton reached the market of the Lower Rhine region and thereby replaced linen weaving more and more. Due to the consistently evolving industrialization of the textile production, the handlooms and the spinning wheels disappeared and the flax fields with them.

Did you know that…
… in the past the people made fabric out of a blue fLower? This fLower is called flax and from its stem one could make a threat for spinning after preparing the stem in many steps. One of the steps was to dry the stems in ovens. In this area people have a special word for drying, they say “darren”. That is why this little building is called “Flachsdarre” in German, or flaxkiln in English.