Het Jonge Schaap, Wind powered sawmill at Zaanse Schans, Netherlands
Het Jonge Schaap is a wood-cutting mill at Zaanse Schans powered entirely by wind to drive its machinery. Inside, three sawing frames and two hoisting systems work together to transform raw logs into finished timber.
The original mill was built in 1680 and operated in Zaandam until 1942, when it was dismantled. The current structure at Zaanse Schans is an exact reconstruction completed in 2007.
The name reflects the tradition of saw millers who worked here for generations, passing down their craft through families. Today visitors can observe these working methods and sense how wood processing was central to the identity and economy of this region.
You can watch the sawing process from an exhibition cellar located beneath the mill, where you can see how wind power operates the machinery. Guided tours run daily and walk you through the working mechanisms to explain how everything operates together.
The mill has a distinctive hexagonal shape that sets it apart from typical mills. Of the eight similarly shaped mills once built in the Netherlands, this is the only one that still operates as a sawmill.
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