Some places you search for. Others find you.

For a long time we held our seminars in beautiful hotels and retreat centres. But at some point a wish began to grow: a place of our own. A place where only our group is present, protected and undisturbed. A place we could shape so that it supports the work, with atmosphere, with warmth, and with everything we need close at hand.

The search

We set off in a camper van, right across Austria. We found wonderful places, in Salzburg for example, but we could not afford them. We had no savings for something like this.

That is how we came to the Waldviertel, for the very first time. We looked at a lot. And right at the end, the estate agent said hesitantly: there was one more thing. Empty for years, quite run down. Should he even show it to us?

“Yes, please. Absolutely.”

Love at first sight, and a loan

It was the old Modlisch Mill, once the dairy farm of Schwarzenau Castle, right on the river Thaya. It had stood empty for three years, stripped bare, overgrown, dilapidated. And still we fell in love with it immediately.

To be honest: reason would never have bought this mill. It was purely a decision of the heart. On credit. We bought the mill in 1991, and straight away the work began: first of all, clearing the land.

What lay beneath the plaster

How bad it really was, we only saw once we started. Beneath fresh paint and behind wooden panelling we found mould, damp and cold. The roofs were broken, and so were the windows. Really only the foundation walls were still standing.

And the more we dug out and the more plaster we knocked off, the worse it looked. For a long time it did not get more beautiful, it first became even bleaker. Only little by little could we see that something was really changing.

At the beginning we lived in a caravan and continued to hold our seminars elsewhere. We cleared the land, because the whole site, one and a half hectares, was completely overgrown. And then we built. Every free minute, alongside our work. Everyone pitched in, we women too: plastering, painting, laying tiles, roofing. Together with friends, staff and professionals, because we could never have managed to have everything done by companies.

There were moments when we did not know whether we would make it, financially too. But we grew with it. And we learned to be happy about small things: a new window, a finished wall, the first warm room.

A special place

As we knocked off the old plaster, the mill showed us its original face: large windows with round arches instead of the small ones we had taken over. The vaults had only been added later. So step by step we opened the mill up again, with large, bright rooms.

A geomancer later told us that the mill is built according to the golden ratio. There is not a single right angle here. And he called it a place of power. Perhaps that is why our guests so often say the same thing when they arrive: “It feels like coming home.”

2002: the first flood

The Thaya is the heart of this place. In August 2002, however, it also showed us its power. The water stood more than a metre high in every room. Our Tyrolean bar, only just opened at the festival, was at the lowest point and went completely under, with its wooden block floor made of reclaimed timber.

Without the many helpers we would never have made it. Friends, people from our seminars who had long since become friends, whole weekends of helping. Afterwards we built a protective wall of granite stones and shafts from which the fire brigade can pump. For many years it protected us.

September 2024: when the water came back

In August 2024 Yod passed away on Tenerife. In September more than a hundred people came to the mill to say goodbye to him together. Many old friends were there, some after many years. It was moving and beautiful.

On the second day it rained heavily. We thought: the wall will hold, as it so often has. But shortly before the sound concert, the fire brigade and the municipality arrived: we have to evacuate, the Thaya is about to burst its banks.

And then something happened that we will never forget. Everyone who was there pitched in. They carried, secured and lifted up whatever they could. Right to the end. Then we too had to leave the house. For a week we could not return, three times the water rose and fell again.

When we came back, the ground floor was full of mud. And we, two women, so soon after Yod’s death, stood in front of it and did not know whether we had the strength to rebuild everything once again.

The wave of help

Then the people came. Friends, guests, former participants, some even from northern Germany. There was a fundraising campaign, and a friend helped us get support. Without them it would not have been possible.

So many said: “This is a special place. We have experienced so much here. Now we want to give something back to you.”

We were used to being there for others. Now we were allowed to learn to accept help. Sitting together at the table after work, tired and grateful, touched us deeply.

More beautiful than before

Over the winter and into spring 2025 we rebuilt the mill with joint forces, just in time for the first seminar. The bathrooms and the common room are new, and once again there is a lot of love in every detail.

This time we also thought of the Thaya: instead of wooden floors there is now travertine, instead of built-in beds there is furniture that can be lifted up. Today the mill is more beautiful than ever, and better prepared.

A home we now share

For a long time El Molino was only there for our own seminars. Today we also open it to others: to companies and teams, to yoga and seminar groups, to families and circles of friends, to everyone looking for a protected, special place in nature. Many come back, and some say exactly what is written on our wall when they leave: Home to yourself.

Would you like to experience this place with your group? El Molino is exclusively yours from March to November. Send an enquiry

Asha & Marie-Luise