In the literature sometimes wrongly referred to as the Duivelmolen (Devil's Mill). The oldest mention of the mill dates back to around 1400. In archival documents it is cited, among others, as “Duven moelen” (1418), “molendinum columbinum” (1569) and “duyven erff” (1671), the latter probably referring to the fact that the mill was then part of a larger farm. It was an undershot watermill with a wooden wheel for grain and oil, part of the lordship of Wesenbeek and dependent on the Abbey of Kornelimünster; in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries it was temporarily a powder mill and from 1919 a grain mill; in 1940 the wooden mill wheel was replaced by an iron one. Milling stopped after the Second World War, when a large part of the surroundings was expropriated for the expansion of the airport (1957); farming stopped in 1973, and at the same time the buildings were abandoned. The mill was listed as a monument by Royal Decree of 4 November 1976.
Today the protected but by now badly dilapidated mill complex is surrounded by recent industrial buildings and lies in the immediate vicinity of the motorway and the interchange, on the north bank of a non-vaulted part of the Woluwe. It is the only surviving one of the formerly numerous watermills in Diegem.
There was probably at first a free-standing watermill with a modest dwelling, to which parts were added, repaired and replaced over time, so that by the third quarter of the nineteenth century the mill complex had grown into a closed square farm, accessible on the north side via a narrow path leading to the fairly monumental entrance gate on the north side of the complex; the L-shaped farmhouse formed the south-west corner, with the cowshed adjoining to the north and the actual mill house and horse stable to the east on the bank of the Woluwe; the long barn, with a dwelling built in front of it around 1893, lay to the north-east of the yard. According to the cadastral change sketches, around 1866, at the same time as the bakehouse in the north-west corner, a small storeroom and dog and pig sheds were built between the barn and the mill house, giving the complex its closed character.
The various parts, mostly under pantiled saddle roofs, were mainly built of the local, calcareous Diegem sandstone; brick was used only for the eastern barn façade and otherwise exclusively for interior and partition walls, decorative patterns and later repairs; the various parts were arranged around a yard that was once cobbled and later asphalted; the closed character of the mill farm was reinforced by a large walled vegetable garden on the west side, now almost entirely gone.
During the inventory campaign of the 1970s the farm was still in fairly good condition; at the re-inventory in 2002 the site had turned into an overgrown ruin. Of the complex, with parts dating from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, only crumbling sandstone wall fragments remain, the squat round-arched gate with projecting keystone and imposts, and dilapidated buildings with visible or largely vanished roof trusses. The diamond-shaped date stone with the year 1767, referring to an eighteenth-century conversion or new construction, is now almost illegible due to weathering and overgrowth. The metal water wheel was dismantled, and of the former sluice system only a few fragments remain on the DHL-Express car park across the Woluwe, Woluwelaan number 151.
The Mommaerts family
In 1887 Judocus Mommaerts bought the mill. Jan Emiel Mommaerts took it over around 1917 and turned it into a grain mill in 1919; he was mayor of Diegem until 1967. After the expropriations for the airport (1957) the mill lost its customers; Josse Mommaerts was the last miller. Locally the mill was also called the ‘molen van Olekens’, after the oil pressed there.
Good to know
The decay went so far that in 2024 the Flemish government started the procedure to lift the protection, considering the heritage values irretrievably lost.
A gunpowder mill
From 1569 to 1684 the Duivenmolen was a powder mill making gunpowder. Around 1630 Gaspard Hannosset and the brothers Thomas and Willem Galle ran it together with the Rattenmolen in Zaventem. Thomas Galle was commissioner for saltpetre and powder of the royal artillery and in 1630 signed a contract for the monthly supply of 10,000 pounds of powder. The work was dangerous: in 1655 and 1675 men were killed when gunpowder caught fire in the mill.
The owners tried to avoid the costly feudal dues owed to the abbey of Kornelimünster by having their purchases registered at the cheaper manorial court of Wezembeek. After a long search, no fewer than 32 unpaid dues were claimed in 1683. After that the mill became an oil mill again. The name Duivenmolen (dove mill) probably refers to a farm where pigeons were kept for the table; in 1767 the farm got new buildings, and the barn still has a dovecote.
Oil, linseed cakes and an iron wheel
From 1834 to 1887 the Duivenmolen was an oil mill of the Buelens family. A diamond-shaped stone dated 1767 in the gable recalls a rebuilding, probably by Cornelis de Smet. According to Josse Mommaerts, the nickname ‘Oleken’ referred to his great-grandfather Pieter Judocus Mommaerts (born in 1819), who traded heavily in oil and linseed cakes. His son Judocus, born in 1862, started as a miller's hand and bought the mill from the Buelens family in 1887. In 1940 the wooden mill wheel was replaced by an iron wheel made by a smith from Breendonk.
Emiel Mommaerts was mayor from 1951 to 1967 and died in 1969. His son Josse (born in 1919) had to sell the farm to the Deacon company in 1973 for health reasons. There were plans to turn it into a guest house, as had happened with the Donjon, and in 1967 the ministry had already announced a restoration, but nothing came of it. In 1976 the mill was listed as a monument.