Kinderdijk - Netherlands

Kinderdijk is the only place in the world where such an amount of windmills kan be found on such a small area. The 19 windmills of Kinderdijk were added to the Unesco world treasure list in 1997 and have been functional up to the 1950's. The 19 windmills kan be divided in 4 groeps:

8 mills of the nederwaard built in 1738
8 mills of the overwaard built in 1740
2 mills of the polder Nieuw-Lekkerland dating from 1761
1 mill of the polder Blokweer approximately built in 1521 (burned down in august 1997 and being rebuilt at the moment)

The second windmill in Kinderdijk is every day opened for visitors from the first of april till the first of october between 9.30 and 17.30. In the windmill you can see how people used to live in the old days. During weekdays and on saturdays the mill will be opertional as well.

The picture above shows the multifunctional room on the ground floor, whre the parents and the smallest children used to sleep, besides that the room was used as a living room and kitchen too. It is decorated in autentical style.

The mills were built to drain the Alblasserwaard. The draining consists of two individual steps. In the first step the water is pumped from the polder level up to the boezem level. The windmills which obtain this function can be found across the polder of the Alblasserwaard. The second step is to pump the water from the boezem into the resevoir, this step is executed in Kinderdijk. When the level of the resevoir meets the average high tide of the river the water flows onto the river which takes iot to the see.

The mills are powered by windforce which is brought down to the scoopwheel by large toothwheels. 2 rotations of the blades will cause one rotation of the scoopwheel