Vakantie in Nederland aan het IJsselmeer dichtbij de Zaanse Schans.

The architect Jb Schipper from Zaandam did the design and division of the Zaanse Schans. Diederick van Sonoy gave the name of this friendly neighbourhood. This governor of William Orange laid his patriot here fight the Spanish troops from Alva in 1574. The Zaanse Schans gives, with its traditional Zanish houses, windmills and warehouses, an impression of how the Zaan region looked like in the seventeenth and the eighteenth century. The Zaan region was one of the first industry regions in the world. Hundreds of windmills were use for the production linseed oil, paint, mustard, paper and the cutting of wood. Tsar Peter the Great made the Zaan region his temporary workingplace to see how the Zaankanters built ships. Napoleon Bonaparte used to call de Zaan region the most beautiful region he had ever seen. The Zaanse Schans isn't an outdoor museum, but a living and working neighbourhood made around the sixties and the seventies. Almost all the authentic buildings were moved to this place. You can find Zanish museums like the grocer museum from Albert Heijn, bakery museum In De Gecroonde Duyvekater, museum The Noorderhuis and the museum of Dutch timepieces. Also typical Old-Dutch crafts can be found like a clog maker, cheese maker, a crafts centre, a Shipyard and a tinnery. Five working windmills show you how people used to live of the wind. Here they make oil, mustard and painting pigment.