The mechanism
A tour explaining how wind turns the millstone.
Joana Kruse joanaimages.com โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Michielverbeek โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Michielverbeek โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Willem Adrianus Korpershoek โ CC BY-SA 4.0
The four sails turn in the wind and drive a horizontal shaft; a bevel gear turns that motion into a vertical shaft running down to the millstone. The skill is in the control: the whole cap must be turned to face the wind, the sails are dressed with canvas or stripped according to the wind's strength, and the shaft must be braked in a storm or the mill catches fire from friction โ which is exactly how most mills end, this one included.
Sign in to write your review of this place.
No reviews yet โ be the first.
The De Adriaan windmill stands on the river Spaarne in Haarlem, the city's best-known and most photographed landmark โ but what you see today is far newer than it looks. The original mill was built in 1779 on the base of an older defensive tower, and ground first trass cement for building work, then tobacco, then grain. In April 1932 it burned down completely in a single night, leaving almost nothing. The base stood empty for seventy years. The people of Haarlem raised funds across decades to rebuild it, and it reopened in 2002 as an exact replica built by traditional methods. That makes it an unusual case: a historic mill two decades old, but constructed as mills were constructed in the eighteenth century. It is visited on a guided tour that explains the mechanism and climbs to the platform.
A tour explaining how wind turns the millstone.
The most photographed spot in Haarlem.
Papentorenvest 1a, 2011 Haarlem