"Open air museum the Zaanse Schans " a Zaanse Schans Travel Page by MATIM

The Zaanse Schans is a typical residential area along the river Zaan with green wooden houses and windmills dating from the 17th and the 18th century.
What makes the Zaanse Schans so special is that it is both a museum and a living and working area.

The area was named 'De Zaanse Schans' after an entrenchment which was erected in 1574 to hold back Spanish troops at the beginning of the Eighty Years War between the Netherlands and Spain. People work and live in the Zaanse Schans: they feel at home in the area and keep alive the glory which this industrial district saw in the golden age. Visiting the Zaanse Schans, you will see a situation characteristic of the landscape of that district until late in the nineteenth century. The dikes were probably built as early as the thirteenth century, the first villages were built along these at a later date. Until late in the last century these were typical 'dike-villages'.

From Dye mill the "kat" you have a nice view at this house and mill