Zaanse Schans

Zaanse Schans - A place that defies time

Situated on the river Zaan just north of Amsterdam, the neighborhood of Zaanse Schans will let you experience firsthand what life in the Netherlands was like during the 18th and the 19th Century. Every year, almost one million tourists flock to this beautiful residential area to enjoy an alluring scenic view full of windmills, clogs, wooden houses, barns, museums and workshops. Due to its ever-increasing popularity among visitors from all over the country and abroad, Zaanse Schans has become one of Holland's most treasured and valuable tourist attractions.

Take a long, relaxing walk through this open-air museum and see an important piece of Dutch industrial history come to life as you move past numerous windmills, warehouses and workshops which were once used to make flour, oil, cocoa powder, paper, paint, snuff, mustard and other valuable goods. Learn all about the fine art of watchmaking at the Zaanse Time museum, see how clogs are made at the clog museum, or grab a taste of Dutch farmer cheese at the cheese farm. And if all that doesn't satisfy your curiosity, you can always get a whiff of freshly baked breath at the bakery museum or pay a visit to the Zaans Gedaan/CocoaLab to see how chocolate used to be made.

CityDotz as an interactive guide through the history of Holland

As you can see, the above description does not leave a lot of room for technological innovation. Nevertheless, that doesn't mean that modern technology can't make the overall experience better by providing you with a convenient way to quickly and efficiently spread relevant information to a large number of visitors. Zaanse Schans is a perfect use case for CityDotz, our own custom software solution which was built exactly for this type of situation.