Schiedam is a city in the province of South Holland in the Netherlands (population around 80,000 people) and is part of the Rotterdam metropolitan area. This city has always been the center of the ‘jenever’ (Dutch gin) industry. Mills ground grain for the distillers, who distilled malt spirit for the ‘jenever’ industry. During its heydays the ‘Company of Distillers’ owned nineteen stilling mills and five of these still stand in Schiedam today. Because these mills were built in the city they needed quite a bit of height to catch sufficient wind. ‘De Noord’ (The North) and ‘De Vrijheid’ (The Freedom) are the two tallest windmills in the world, measuring over 33 meters.
The postcard sent by Veerle shows De Walvisch Mill. It dates from 1794 and is one of the highest mills in the world, at 33 meters. In February 1996, the tower mill was almost completely destroyed by fire in 1996. Fund-raising drives organized by the local population and the Schiedam Mill Association yielded sufficient funds to restore the mill. It has been in operation again since 1999.
Schiedam is a city in the province of South Holland in the Netherlands (population around 80,000 people) and is part of the Rotterdam metropolitan area. This city has always been the center of the ‘jenever’ (Dutch gin) industry. Mills ground grain for the distillers, who distilled malt spirit for the ‘jenever’ industry. During its heydays the ‘Company of Distillers’ owned nineteen stilling mills and five of these still stand in Schiedam today. Because these mills were built in the city they needed quite a bit of height to catch sufficient wind. ‘De Noord’ (The North) and ‘De Vrijheid’ (The Freedom) are the two tallest windmills in the world, measuring over 33 meters.
The postcard sent by Veerle shows De Walvisch Mill. It dates from 1794 and is one of the highest mills in the world, at 33 meters. In February 1996, the tower mill was almost completely destroyed by fire in 1996. Fund-raising drives organized by the local population and the Schiedam Mill Association yielded sufficient funds to restore the mill. It has been in operation again since 1999. 
0 comments:
Post a Comment