The Kinderdijk Windmills

Kinderdijk is the iconic image of the old, water-fighting Netherlands, a UNESCO site where nineteen historic windmills stand in a stately line along the dykes and canals of a green polder below sea level. Built in the eighteenth century to pump water from the low land, they are the largest concentration of old windmills in the country and a monument to the Dutch centuries-long battle with the sea.

History

Water problems grew in the Alblasserwaard in the 13th century, and large drainage canals, weteringen, were dug, but the drained soil kept sinking while the river rose with its sand deposits, so after a few centuries more was needed. Around 1740 a system of 19 windmills was built to pump water from the polder into a reservoir at an intermediate level, from which other mills pumped it into the river whenever the river was low enough; today two diesel pumping stations do the main work, though some mills still turn. The name, children's dike, comes from a legend of the Saint Elizabeth flood of 1421, when a cradle with a sleeping baby, kept afloat by a cat, is said to have washed up on the dike. The mills are the largest group of old windmills in the Netherlands and have been a World Heritage Site since 1997 (Wikipedia, Kinderdijk).

The main sights

• The line of windmills - the nineteen historic mills along the dykes.
• The working mills - the visitor mills you can enter to see how they worked.
• The polder landscape - the green, water-laced land below sea level.
• The walking and cycling paths - the routes along the canals between the mills.

When to go

Spring to autumn for the best weather and open mills, and to walk or cycle the paths; some mills turn on set days. It is lovely and quieter early or late in the day, and can be reached scenically by waterbus from Rotterdam.

Good to know

It is a very popular day trip, so the paths and car park get busy midday; go early or late. It is a landscape to walk or cycle rather than a single sight, so allow time and good weather. Only a couple of mills are open to enter.

Nearby

Rotterdam's modern skyline is close; the historic town of Dordrecht is nearby.

Key facts