Windmill De Salamander Leidschendam

De Salamander is a sawmill in Leidschendam, the Netherlands. The mill was built in 1777 as a replacement for a burnt-out predecessor from the seventeenth century. It was in operation until 1953. The rotating motion of the mill is transferred to the sawing area by means of drive belts, where awnings attached to the crankshaft (a kind of connecting rods) set the two saw frames in motion. The Salamander has a crankshaft with four cranks, but only two of them are used. The two saw frames are linked to this. From the end of the 19th century, a steam engine was used to make it possible to cut even when there was no wind. This steam engine was fired with waste wood.

In the early 1980s, only a ruin remained of the mill. In 1985, the Foundation for the Construction of Salamander (S.O.S.) was founded, which ensured that the mill was dismantled and stored. In 1989 De Salamander was rebuilt at a new location on the Vliet. Originally, the sawmill was a bit away from the Vliet. Since October 25, 1995, the mill has been in operation again, on a voluntary basis. Next to the mill is the so-called beam hole in the water, where the tree trunks lie in the water before they are sawn.

Until 2004, the mill's saw hall had a brown color, but due to the high heat absorption, the paint cracked and therefore the mill needed a lot of maintenance. The saw hall has now been repainted in grey, a colour that has also been used for De Salamander in the past.

The mill can be visited on Wednesday afternoons and Saturdays from 14:00 to 16:00.

Marianne