Zaanse Schans Windmills
Live Cam
A row of working windmills stands along the river Zaan at Zaanse Schans, their sails turning above green timber houses and flat open polder. This ultraHD pan tilt zoom camera looks out across the site, letting you follow the sails, the water and the changing Dutch light through the day and into the evening.
Why Zaanse Schans? Zaanse Schans preserves a corner of the Zaan region as it looked when wind powered the mills that ground pigment, sawed timber and pressed oil. The buildings were moved here and put back together, so the whole riverside feels assembled from the old Netherlands. It is one of the most photographed views in the country, and here it moves.
Zaanse Schans Windmills highlights: As you enjoy the live view, be sure to look out for:
- Turning Sails: Watch the mill sails catch the breeze, sometimes several turning at once, sometimes locked still on a windless grey morning.
- Zaan River Traffic: Small boats, barges and paddling waterfowl pass along the water in front of the mills and the wooden green houses.
- Big Dutch Skies: The flat landscape gives enormous cloudscapes, with low light at dawn and dusk throwing long shadows across the polder.
Beyond the Mills: Zaanse Schans sits just north of Amsterdam, in the Zaan district around Zaandam. The wider area is classic Noord-Holland: canals, drained polder fields, cycle paths on the dikes and low horizons. The city is close enough that many visitors arrive by train or bus and spend a half day among the mills.
This view is shared by WebCam.NL together with dezaanseschans.nl, who maintain the high resolution pan tilt zoom camera overlooking the site. Their work keeps one of the Netherlands' best known landscapes visible around the clock to anyone curious enough to look in.
Tune in to see whether the sails are turning today, and let a stretch of old Dutch riverbank play out quietly on your screen.
