Zaanse Schans Netherlands. Zaanse Schans - traditional Holland Holland village with mills

Mills, wooden shoes and Dutch cheeses in one place! At the Zaanse Schans open-air museum you can see windmills in action and learn about life in Holland in the 17th and 18th centuries. How to get to Zaanse Schans from Amsterdam, about houses, museums and workshops in a distinctive village in the North of Holland.

Zaanse Schans

Village-museum Zaanse Schans arose in 1961 thanks to the talented architect Jaap Schipper, who set out to preserve the cultural heritage of the Zaanstad region. At the end of the 16th century, Holland learned to harness the power of the wind, and since then more than 10,000 windmills have been built on its territory, 600 of which operated in Zaanstad. 6 mills and 35 houses were moved to the open-air museum. Now Zaanse Schans is one of the most visited places in the Netherlands (1 million tourists per year).

How to get to Zaanse Schans from Amsterdam

From Amsterdam to Zaanse Schans 20 km. You can travel through them by bus or train.

Bus 391 to Zaanse Schans departs every 15 minutes from the bus station at Amsterdam Central Station. Travel time is 40 minutes.

Trains from Amsterdam arrive at the Zaandijk - Zaanse Schans station. It is profitable to buy a return ticket immediately. The train takes 17 minutes.

We had the Amsterdam & Region Travel Ticket, which allowed us to move around the region an unlimited number of times for 2 days, so we went there by bus and back by train. This option is convenient if you want to walk the entire territory of Zaanse Schans and not come back, and also look at different landscapes from the window. The main entrance to the open-air museum is located at the bus stop. The train station is located on the other side of the river, a 15-minute walk. From April 1 to October 1, a bicycle taxi runs between the station and the museum.

You can travel to Zaanse Schans by excursion bus. The tour from Amsterdam lasts 3 hours, includes a guide during the trip and a self-guided tour of the area.

Parking a car in Zaanse Schans costs €10.

The village of Zaanse Schans is open all year round and entry is free. Visiting mills and museums with entrance tickets, prices and opening hours on the website. The Zaanse Schans Card allows you to visit 1 mill, several museums and workshops, and get a discount on river trips, shops and restaurants. The Zaanse Schans Information Center is located inside the Zaanse Museum and is open every day from 10 to 17, except December 25 and January 1. The trip to Zaanse Schans usually takes half a day, but if the weather is good there is nothing stopping you from staying longer and spending the whole day in the countryside.

There are 6 mills in Zaanse Schans and all of them are operational. Once inside (ticket €4.5), you can watch the mechanisms at work and go upstairs. History of the mills on information boards outside. Each mill has its own name and purpose.

• De Huisman— mill for the production of spices and mustard. Free entry!
• De Gekroonde Poelenburg- sawmill
• De Kat"Cat" - paint mill
• De Zoeker- oil mill
• De Bonte Hen"Pockmarked Chicken" - oil mill
• Het Jonge Schaap"Young Sheep" - sawmill

Museums

The Zaanse Schans museums tell the history of the region and the lives and activities of the people who lived there.

• - a collection of works of art, models of ships and windmills, household items. The Verkade pavilion recreates the atmosphere of a chocolate bar
  factory founded in 1886. Visitors can press buttons on interactive displays to bag cookies and chocolates.
• Albert Heijn Museum Shop— Albert Heijn museum-shop. The history of the largest supermarket chain Albert Heijn began with a small grocery store. Inside the wooden building of the 19th century, the original furnishings and equipment have been preserved. You can do some shopping, drink coffee.
• Bakery Museum de Gecroonde Duyvekater- a museum-bakery from 1658 with a real bread oven and a beautiful marble floor. Traditional Dutch baked goods and confectionery are sold here.
• Zaanse Time Museum— the clock museum tells the history of Dutch clocks, from the 16th century bell tower to modern electronic models.
• Windmill Museum— the windmill museum is located in Koog anan de Zaan across the bridge from Zaanse Schans on the way to the railway station. The museum exhibits models of mills, equipment, tools, paintings and construction drawings.

Homes and workshops

In essence, every house in Zaanse Schans is a museum. The wooden buildings of the Zaan area are characterized by long windows and low doors, and most houses are painted green. Many historic houses are occupied by people and are not accessible to the public, but can be viewed from the outside and photographed. The house at Kalverringdijk 17 is an exception, housing the Hotel Heerlijck Slaapen.

Zaanse Schans workshops demonstrate and sell their products. You can watch the production process and buy a typical Dutch souvenir.

• - cheese factory. The farm Catharina Hoeve was located in 1750 in Oostzaan. In the modern workshop you can try and buy several types of delicious Dutch cheeses. Sheep and goats graze right on the village grounds.
• Clog workshop— workshop of klomps (traditional wooden shoes). The largest collection of clamps in the Netherlands with a demonstration of the manufacturing process. Original shoes that you can wear.
• Tiemstra Coopery— the barrel workshop conducts master classes on the production of barrels from the company “SR Tiemstra & Sons”.
• Zaans Gedaan, CacaoLab— in the chocolate making workshop you will learn about the process of its production from cocoa beans. Chocolate is made in a traditional way using 18th century technology.
• De Tweekoppige Phoenix— history of the production of liqueurs at the Tweekoppige Phoenix distillery, tasting and sale.
• De Tinkoepel- a pewter foundry, one of the last in the Netherlands. All products are cast by hand.

The area is clearly visible from the observation tower located next to the information center. It is designed as a bird watching area.
Scenic views of the mills also open from the water. The Saan river cruise lasts 45 minutes and includes an audio guide and narration from the captain.

After visiting the open-air museum, you can take a walk or bike ride to the neighboring towns. Across the river from Zaanse Schans is Zandijk with its beautiful houses. In the city of Zaandam there is the House of Peter I, turned into a museum.

“One of a kind,” said Napoleon when he visited Zaanse Schans. History is silent about what he especially liked. The 250-year-old windmill park offers traditional Holland, idyllic scenery and fresh air.

Located just 16 km. north of Amsterdam, village Zaanse Schans offers a beautifully preserved glimpse into the Netherlands' industrial past with its traditional houses, windmills, warehouses and workshops. You can visit windmills and see for yourself how they are used for making spices, grinding, sawing wood and many other purposes.

During its heyday in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Zaan region was an important industrial area dotted with hundreds of windmills producing linseed oil, paint, tobacco, mustard, paper and other products. Many of the characteristic village houses of Zaanse Schans are now museums, gift shops or workshops, while others are still used as private residences. Some of the remaining windmills are also open to the public.

Zaanse Schans attracts almost a million visitors a year and is one of the Netherlands' most beloved attractions. Entrance to the village itself and some museums is free, but you will have to pay to visit windmills, workshops and other museums. Opening times and entry prices vary.

How to get to Zaanse Schans

Zaanse Schans is located just 16.5 km from Amsterdam. You can reach the village by car, bicycle or public transport.

How to get to Zaanse Schans by bus

You need bus number 391 leaving from Amsterdam Central Station to Zaanse Schans. It leaves every 15 minutes. The journey takes 40 minutes and costs €5 one way or €10 for a day ticket. Tickets can be purchased from the bus driver.

How to get to Zaanse Schans by train

Take the Sprinter train to Zaandijk Zaanse Schans station. The train journey from Amsterdam Central Station takes just 17 minutes and costs €3.20 one way. The village of Zaanse Schans is just a 10-minute walk from the station. As you leave the station you will see a lot of signs.

In the village of Zaanse Schans, an unforgettable atmosphere of the past of Holland reigns: the blades of ancient mills quietly hold together, the smell of freshly baked bread, a shoemaker knocking in the clog workshop, the cheese factory is always full of visitors. Village houses, painted green, resemble pictures, with embroidered curtains, flowers on the windows, wicker furniture in the front gardens. Snow geese slowly cross the street, and fat sheep graze in the meadows. Zaanse Schans even has its own small, almost toy-like drawbridge.

This is a typical Dutch village from the past, and at the same time it is real, despite the fact that it has the status of a museum. In the 60s of the last century, in the vicinity of the small town of Zaandam, not far from Amsterdam, mills and houses that had been preserved in the country since the 17th-18th centuries were brought, which are examples of wooden architecture. Workshops, museums, and souvenir shops were opened. But at the same time, Zaanse Schans is a real village where people live. Only they know how easy it is to live in a museum that is visited by thousands of tourists every year.

Attractions Zaanse Schans

Today, Zaanse Schans is one of the most striking popular attractions, attracting tourists from all over the world. The unique village where people live and work provides a unique opportunity to plunge into the atmosphere of a Dutch village of the 17th - 18th centuries, and see the ancient crafts that brought glory to Holland.

Tourists can visit six working mills, two of which press oil, two are sawmills, a mustard mill and a dye mill.

Mills are a cult for Holland. Mills ran their entire production life in the 17th century on their blades. They ground everything: spices, grain, mustard, irrigated and drained the lands. The mills that can be seen in the village of Zaanse Schans are unique. All of them have been restored and are working. The oldest exhibits deserve special attention. The De Huisman mill was built in 1780 and now, as in the old days, grinds mustard.

“Cat” is the only mill in the world today that produces paint. Its date of birth is 1646, and it was originally an oil mill. Its peer, “De Oyfar”, worked on wind energy until 1916, and was modernized quite recently. The De Zucker mill produces linseed, rapeseed and vegetable oil. "De Gekronde Poulenberg" mini-sawmill. Like all the other mills, it was practically destroyed by fire and after restoration, it was not possible to get it working again for a very long time due to improper assembly.

In addition to mills, ancient warehouses and houses of local residents, tourists are offered to visit unique workshops where the traditions of old crafts have been preserved for several centuries.

Craft center for the production of klomps

One of these craft centers allows you to see with your own eyes how traditional wooden shoes - klomps - are made.

Klomps are the most favorite souvenir of tourists all over the world; to some extent, these wooden shoes, along with mills and cheese, have become symbols of the Netherlands. They are given to high-ranking guests who visit the country, and thousands of tourists buy them as a souvenir of the trip. Today, modern farmers use them as shoes, unfortunately less and less.

At the craft center you will have the opportunity to see the entire production cycle of these “miracle shoes”, from making the wooden block to hand painting.

Nearby is also the Museum of Klomps, which houses exhibits from the most ancient ones, made several centuries ago, to modern art objects.

Other attractions of the village

In addition to the production of klomps, tourists will be invited to get acquainted with the smelting of tin, the production of real Dutch cheese, and the painting of Delft porcelain.

In the village and nearby, in addition to the Zaans Museum, which tells the history of the industrial zone of the Zaanstrieck area, there are several other objects of interest to tourists.

These are the merchant house "Honig Brethuis", located in Zaandijk, the museum of mills on the Zaan River, the house in Zaandam, in which Tsar Peter I lived when he studied shipbuilding in Holland.

In numerous shops and souvenir shops you can buy ceramics, cheese, mustard, textiles and klomps, and, of course, numerous postcards and magnets to remember Holland.

Practical information

The village is open to visitors all year round; in winter some of the facilities are closed.
Opening hours: daily from 9:00 to 17:00.
Entrance to Zaanse Schans is free, but visits to craft centers and museums are paid separately. Entrance fees range from 3.00 EUR to 10.00 EUR. The best way to visit is to purchase a Zaanse Schans Card, which will allow you to visit the Zaanse Museum, the Clock Museum, and the Bakery
Entrance fee for adults 10.00 EUR
Entrance ticket for children from 4 to 17 years old 6.00 EUR

How to get there

By train you need to go to Koog-Zaandijk station (ticket costs 3.20 EUR), travel time is 17 minutes. From the station to the village it is about a 10-minute walk following the signs in the direction of Zaanse Schans. You can also get there by bus number 91, which departs every 30 minutes from Amsterdam Central Station and goes to the Zaans Museum. Those arriving by car should know that parking costs 7.5 EUR for the whole day, and 1 EUR for half an hour.

Zaanse Schans (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - expositions, opening hours, address, phone numbers, official website.

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Another symbol of the country (besides tulips and coffee shops) is, of course, the windmill. Many of these structures stand throughout the Netherlands, giving a special flavor to the surrounding landscape. Often, the well-being of Dutch villages depended precisely on how well the mill worked and, accordingly, on the wind, thanks to which its wings rotate and make the mechanism work. The place where you can get acquainted with the different types of mills, their structure and the organization of the technological process is the village of Zaanse Schans. Many of the exhibits in this open-air museum still work today, grinding grain and churning butter.

Tourists have a wonderful opportunity to watch this happen. In addition, in Zaanse Schans you can visit a classic Dutch farm where traditional cheese is made, see various houses typical of a Dutch village, and visit workshops where national shoes - klomps - are cut using ancient methods, which you can also buy here.

Zaanse Schans

Mills of Zaanse Schans

• De Huisman - mustard mill
• De Gekroonde Poelenburg - sawmill
• De Kat ("Cat") - paint mill
• De Zoeker - oil mill
• De Bonte Hen ("The Speckled Hen") - oil mill
• Het Jonge Schaap ("The Young Sheep") - sawmill
• De Os - oil mill
• Het Klaverblad ("Cloverleaf") - sawmill

and many others.

Coordinates

Most mill museums are open from 10 am to 5 pm. Getting to the open-air museum is easy from Amsterdam by bus, train, bike or car. In the first case, look for bus 391, which will depart from Central Station every hour, direction Zaanse Schans, the journey takes 40 minutes.

By train you need to go to Koog-Zaandijk station, the journey takes 17 minutes, from there it is only 15 minutes on foot to Zaanse Schans. Those arriving by car should know that parking costs 9 EUR for the whole day, 1 hour - 3.50 EUR, 2 hours - 6 EUR. Entrance to the museum is 10 EUR.

Prices on the page are as of September 2018.

On one of the days spent in Holland, we decided to visit the famous village of Zaanse Schans. I really wanted to see a completely authentic Holland, as well as take a walk near the mills and, if desired, go into one of them.
Actually, this is why all tourists come here. Getting to the village of Zaanse Schans is very easy. Bus number 91 runs from Amsterdam Central Station. You can also consider an alternative route by train, but you will still have to walk 10-15 minutes to the park, so we chose the bus option. On this day the weather turned out to be cooler... the sky was slightly overcast... we slowly walked towards the Amsterdam railway station...

Mysterious morning in Amsterdam

The bus arrived quite quickly... the ride to Zaanse Schans is about 30-40 minutes. The road is not very picturesque... so, mainly along the outskirts of Amsterdam, and then a little along the fields.
So... what is the village of Zaanse Schans like? In fact, this is quite a popular tourist attraction...I knew about it. On the Internet I came across a number of dissatisfied reviews, like: “It’s all window dressing... everything is not real...” I don’t agree... the mills are quite real, the place is picturesque and we didn’t regret at all that we stopped by here for a couple of hours.

General view of the Zaanse Schans area

The exhibition village is very small, the small streets of a typical Dutch village are made, everything is very cute :)

mills in the village of Zaanse Schans

On the way to the mills, we stopped at one of the tourist houses. It turned out that they sell various chocolates there, because... There is a cocoa factory near Zaanse Schans. By the way, the smell of cocoa followed us almost everywhere...

Chocolate tools

In general, the house itself is a kind of chocolate workshop... after all, the Europeans are great with their marketing... the price range of chocolate products is very wide. We bought ourselves some goodies there. The cost of one chocolate candy is approximately 20-30 euro cents.

The further you move from the exhibition houses of the village of Zaanse Schans, the fewer people there become. By the way, apart from the view of the mills and the river, there is basically nothing else... the natural landscapes in Holland are unfortunately quite flat and not picturesque, but sometimes you can find something interesting for yourself, for example, take photographs as a souvenir in the style of an impressionist artist... 🙂

Van Gogh?. Monet?.. Rybinsky! 🙂

You can also arrange a photo hunt for a heron 🙂 you just need to have the appropriate lens.

Heron in Zaanse Schans

We decided to go to one of the mills. It turned out to be for grinding various spices... so... funny of course, but I can’t say that we really got into these mechanisms)) a visit to one mill was enough for us, although many tourists came to each... as they say, there are no friends for the taste and color !

Inside the mill

I found myself thinking that the atmosphere in the village of Zaanse Schans reminded me of some slightly art-house film, for example “Ship News” with Kevin Spacey. I don’t know why... it’s true that the village there was completely forgotten by God, but even here, looking at the river and the neighboring bank, feelings of some kind of solitude from the rest of the world arise...

Views of the opposite shore

The weather in Holland changes as well as its landscapes... and from the slightly depressing previous picture, the gaze turns to a completely cartoonish and positive one :)

Having seen enough of the mills, we slowly walked in the opposite direction... by the way, if you want to ride a bike around the area, you can easily do it; a bicycle rental point is located almost immediately at the entrance to the park.

Views of Zaanse Schans

The house is just a store selling these shoes... the trick is that the shoes are wooden... no idea how people used to walk in them, but it doesn’t feel comfortable at all and now it’s more just entertainment than real shoes.

House with clogs in Zaanse Schans :)

Zaanse Schans is also a good place for filming all kinds of reports... for example, a typical reportage shot, somehow it caught my attention... it’s kind of lively... :)

Promenade in Zaanse Schans

In total, we spent about 2 hours in Zaanse Schans. This time was enough for us. I can’t say that we were indescribably delighted with this place. But before this, we had not seen this, and yet, I think that such a village simply needs to be visited in Holland, because... nevertheless, the cities of the country, in my opinion, are slightly similar to each other.

Natural landscapes of Zaanse Schans

On the way back we had a rather unpleasant incident. We saw that our bus heading to Amsterdam had arrived. Buses leave approximately every 30-40 minutes, and of course we did not want to wait for the next flight. We ran to the bus, but the bus doors were closed right in front of our noses. I previously read in a guidebook that if the doors on the bus close, then it will no longer wait for you and will continue along its own path... well, that’s how it is. Then, for about a minute, the bus just stands at the stop... we look at the driver in bewilderment, standing near the closed doors... he has zero emotions... then I decided to press the door open button on the outside of the bus... it didn’t work... only the driver looked at me with a frown and shook his head ...)) well, we walked a little away from the bus, probably another minute passed and then suddenly he decided to open the door for us, I don’t know for what reasons... we got in, the driver looked at me with such an expression that I had ruined his whole day and said: "Don't ever do that again." Then we bought tickets and he VERY demonstratively nodded at us in the direction of the salon, saying, come on, pass mediocrity...)) I don’t like to spoil my mood, especially on vacation, but this freak unfortunately spoiled it with such a humiliating act. Well, there are different people... to be fair, I’ll say that this is the only case in Holland where they were so rude and the guy himself was VERY unpleasant...
Still, we were more positive from the landscapes we saw of the village of Zaanse Schans and headed further to Amsterdam, then to change trains and go to the city of Haarlem, but, as you probably already guessed, this is a completely different story :)
Finally, I am attaching to the post a map of how to get from Amsterdam to the village of Zaanse Schans.
By the way, the map shows the route of travel by train, by bus it’s even easier, the main thing is that the driver is normal)))