51 Sights in Rotterdam, Netherlands (with Map and Images)
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Welcome to your journey through the most beautiful sights in Rotterdam, Netherlands! Whether you want to discover the city's historical treasures or experience its modern highlights, you'll find everything your heart desires here. Be inspired by our selection and plan your unforgettable adventure in Rotterdam. Dive into the diversity of this fascinating city and discover everything it has to offer.
Sightseeing Tours in RotterdamActivities in Rotterdam
The fifth SS Rotterdam, also known as "The Grande Dame", is a former ocean liner and cruise ship, and has been a hotel ship in Rotterdam, Netherlands, since 2010. She was launched by Queen Juliana of the Netherlands in a gala ceremony on 13 September 1958, and was completed the following summer.
The Markthal is a residential and office building with a market hall underneath, located in Rotterdam. The building was opened on October 1, 2014, by Queen Máxima of the Netherlands. Besides the large market hall, the complex houses 228 apartments, 4,600 m2 retail space, 1,600 m2 horeca and an underground 4-storey parking garage with a capacity of over 1200 cars.
Diergaarde Blijdorp, officially Rotterdam Zoo, is a zoo located in the northwestern part of Rotterdam. It is one of the oldest zoos in the Netherlands, and has been operated by the Stichting Koninklijke Rotterdamse Diergaarde. Divided into several zoogeographic regions, the 34-hectare (84-acre) Blijdorp Zoo boasts 562 species. It also has a shop, multiple cafes, and an information centre.
4. Kubuswoningen
The cube houses in Rotterdam are 38 cube-shaped stilt houses and 13 company cubes at the Blaak near the Oude Haven. They were built between 1982 and 1984, after a first presentation of the plans in 1978. Piet Blom's design is a variant of the Helmond cube house in a slightly larger size grid. The viaduct on one floor is officially called the Overblaak, but the entire complex is known as the Blaakse Bos. The cube houses are built in the form of a tilted cube on a pole, and are also called stilt houses or tree houses.
5. Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Municipal Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen is an art museum in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The name of the museum is derived from its two most important donors, Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans and Daniël George van Beuningen. The museum is located at the Museumpark in the district Rotterdam Centrum, close to the Kunsthal and the Natural History Museum.
6. Kunstinstituut Melly
Kunstinstituut Melly is a contemporary art gallery located in a former school building on Witte de Withstraat, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It was founded in 1990 and originally named after the street it was located on. It presents curated exhibitions, symposiums, live events, educational programs, and has a separate art literature publishing arm.
7. Sonneveld House
Sonneveld House in the South Holland city of Rotterdam was built between 1932 and 1933 by architect Leendert van der Vlugt of Bureau Brinkman & van der Vlugt on behalf of A.H. Sonneveld, then a member of the board of the Rotterdam company Erven De Weduwe J. van Nelle. Sonneveld House, together with the nearby Boevé House, designed by the same architect in the same style, is a national monument.
8. Rotterdams Openbaar Vervoer Museum
The Romeo Foundation is an organization that deals with the exploitation of old trams, subways and buses in Rotterdam and stands for "Rotterdam's public transport museum and exploitation of oldtimers".
9. Euromast
Euromast is an observation tower in Rotterdam, Netherlands, designed by Hugh Maaskant constructed between 1958 and 1960. It was specially built for the 1960 Floriade, and is a listed monument since 2010. The tower is a concrete structure with an internal diameter of 9 m (30 ft) and a wall thickness of 30 cm (12 in). For stability it is built on a concrete block of 1,900,000 kg (4,200,000 lb) so that the centre of gravity is below ground. It has a "crow's nest" observation platform 96 m (315 ft) above ground and a restaurant. Originally 101 m (331 ft) in height it was the tallest building in Rotterdam. It lost this position to the high-rise of Erasmus MC which was completed in 1968, but regained it when the Space Tower was added to the top of the building in 1970, giving an additional 85 m (279 ft). Euromast was the highest building of the Netherlands, but was surpassed by De Zalmhaven, also in Rotterdam, in 2021. It is also a member of the World Federation of Great Towers. In 2008, 2009 and 2019, the tower hosted an extreme sports event which featured BASE jumping.
10. Van Nelle
The former Van Nelle Factory on the Schie in Rotterdam, is considered a prime example of the modernist and functionalist architecture. It has been a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2014. Soon after it was built, prominent architects described the factory as "the most beautiful spectacle of the modern age" and "a poem in steel and glass".
11. Plaswijckpark
The Plaswijckpark is a recreation park that is located on the Bergse Achterplas between the districts of Schiebroek and Hillegersberg on the northern edge of Rotterdam. The park is owned by the Plaswijckpark Foundation. It is known as a small-scale amusement park for parents with small children and school groups.
12. Essalam
The Essalam Mosque is a large mosque in the Feijenoord district of Rotterdam, near the Kuip football stadium. The prayer house is the largest mosque in the Netherlands. Due to its size, the mosque is a strong landmark for the neighborhood. The dome is 25 meters high and the minarets are 50 meters high.
13. Poortgebouw
The Poortgebouw is a national monument located at Stieltjesstraat 38 in the Kop van Zuid area of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It was built beside the River Maas in 1879 and experienced a range of uses until it was squatted 3 October 1980. It had been standing empty for 2 years and was squatted as a protest intended to highlight the lack of affordable residential housing in Rotterdam.
14. Pauluskerk
Pauluskerk is a church building on the Mauritsweg in the center of Rotterdam. The first St. Paul's Church there was inaugurated in 1960 by the Reformed Congregation of Rotterdam and was demolished in 2007. On the same site, church activities resumed in 2013 in a new futuristic-looking structure, designed by the English architect Will Alsop.
15. Theater De Doelen
De Doelen is a concert venue and convention centre in Rotterdam, Netherlands. It was originally built in 1934 but then destroyed in 1940 during the German bombardment of Rotterdam in May 1940 at the outset of World War II. It was rebuilt in 1966, originally with one hall to which two more were added in the 1990s.
16. Mevlana moskee
The Mevlana Mosque is a mosque in northwestern Rotterdam, Netherlands which serves mainly Turkish-Dutch Muslims. The mosque, named after Rumi, was built in 2001 and has two minarets. The mosque was voted as Rotterdam's most attractive building in 2006.
17. Belasting & Douane Museum
The Tax & Customs Museum is a museum on a theme of historical and social importance and gives people insight into why we pay taxes, but also how and on which goods, possessions and services were taxed over time. The museum offers young and old a journey of discovery through the history of taxes in the Netherlands and the world of Customs.
18. Villa Zebra
Villa Zebra is a children's museum for contemporary visual art. Villa Zebra develops interactive exhibitions and art installations, art workshops and a Klooi or Reading Afternoon every two weeks. In addition, Villa Zebra provides art education programs at schools and on location.
19. Hoflaankerk
The Hoflaan Church on the corner of the Hoflaan and the Oudedijk is the oldest church building in the Rotterdam district of Kralingen. It was built in 1842 as a Waterstaatskerk diagonally opposite the former town hall, which stood on the corner of the 's-Gravenweg and the Kortekade at the crossroads. The architect was Arend Roodenburg, head teacher of Architecture at the Royal Academy in The Hague. The address of the national monument is Hoflaan 1.
20. De gestileerde bloem
The stylized flower is a nickname for the untitled Dutch artwork at the entrance of the Bijenkorf in Rotterdam, designed by Naum Gabo. It is seen as the most important work in his oeuvre. In the walk, the statue is called "the thing".
21. Oude Kerk Charlois
The building of the Oude Kerk in Charlois is relatively young, but stands on the site of a much older church. The current church hall dates from 1868. The tower is much older, it was completed in 1660. The Reformed District Congregation Charlois of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands uses the house of worship.
22. Nieuwe Instituut
Nieuwe Instituut is a cultural centre in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. It focuses on architecture, design, and digital culture. NI is in a building designed by Jo Coenen at Museumpark 25 in the centre of Rotterdam, adjacent to the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. The building contains a shop, exhibition space, study centre, and archive, as well as the Sonneveld House, a pond, and a small park.
23. De Speelman
De Speelman is a windmill in the Rotterdam borough of Overschie. The current mill was built in the period 1970-1971 to replace the mill De Hoop, which was dismantled in the 60s of the 20th century because it posed a danger to air traffic to and from Zestienhoven airport. Because the history of De Speelman is so closely linked to that of De Hoop, the history of both mills is shown below.
24. Scots International Church
The Scots International Church or the Scottish Church is located in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. An English-language Protestant church in the Presbyterian tradition, it is part of the Church of Scotland, within the Church's Presbytery of Europe.
25. Museumpark
Museumpark is an urban park in Rotterdam, Netherlands, located between the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Westersingel, Westzeedijk and the complex of the Erasmus MC, a medical centre affiliated with the Erasmus University.
26. Chabot Museum
The Chabot Museum is a museum dedicated to the Dutch painter and sculptor Hendrik (Henk) Chabot in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The museum is housed in a monumental villa in the Museumpark, near the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen and the Netherlands Architecture Institute.
27. De Boeg
De Boeg is a war memorial in Rotterdam. It commemorates the 3500 people on board Dutch merchant ships who lost their lives in the Second World War. The monument of Fred Carasso was unveiled on 10 April 1957 by Princess Margriet on the corner of the Boompjes and the Leuvehaven. The 46-metre-high aluminium construction symbolises a bow in the concrete waves. Later, on 15 July 1965, an 8-metre-high bronze sculpture group was added to the monument: a helmsman, three sailors and a drowned man. On the side is the text: "They kept course".
28. Radio Museum
The Rotterdam Radio Museum Foundation was set up in 1988 by Harry de Jong Sr., a former director of the company Correct. Volunteers work in the museum, located at NS Station Noord in the South Holland city of Rotterdam. The museum is open on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in the afternoon and admission is free of charge. The collection includes almost all forms of consumer electronics such as radio, television, VCRs, CD and DVD players, etc. There are regular exhibitions with a certain theme.
29. De verwoeste stad
The Destroyed City is a bronze memorial sculpture in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. It commemorates the German bombing of Rotterdam on 14 May 1940, which destroyed the medieval centre of the city. Unveiled in 1953, it was designated as a Dutch national monument (Rijksmonument) in 2010. It is the largest sculpture by the Russian-born French sculptor Ossip Zadkine, his best known work, and the best known sculpture in Rotterdam.
30. Calandmonument
The Caland monument in the Scheepvaartkwartier, in the Dutch city of Rotterdam, commemorates engineer Pieter Caland, who designed the Nieuwe Waterweg, the direct connection to the sea. The monument was unveiled in 1907 after a design from 1906 by H.J. Evers with Arend Odé, and was paid for by the Rotterdam bourgeoisie.
31. Andreaskerk
The Andreaskerk is the first reconstruction church in Rotterdam, built to a design by Bastiaan van der Lecq. The church building was put into use in 1949, as a replacement for the Lutheran church in the center of Rotterdam, which was destroyed as a result of the bombing at the beginning of the Second World War.
32. Pendrechtse Molen
The Pendrecht Mill in Barendrecht was built in 1731 and drained the polder Pendrecht. In 1993 the mill was moved about three kilometers to the east, moving the mill from Rotterdam territory to Barendrecht. The mill is located just north of the A15 and is clearly visible from the road.
33. Havenmuseum
The Harbour Museum is located in and on the Leuvehaven in the South Holland city of Rotterdam. The museum collection includes ships, harbour cranes and other port-related objects from the period 1850-1970. Since September 2014, the Harbour Museum has merged with the Maritime Museum Rotterdam. Both museums will merge under the name Maritime Museum Rotterdam.
34. De Zandweg
Windmill De Zandweg on the Kromme Zandweg in Charlois is a flour mill built in 1723. In 1959, the municipality of Rotterdam bought this mill and completely restored it. The restoration was completed in 1962. The mill is regularly in operation and can then be visited.
35. Post Rotterdam
The main post office in Rotterdam, now POST Rotterdam, is a monumental building at Coolsingel no. 42 built between 1915 and 1923 as a post office. The building has been a national monument since 2000. From 2021, the building is planned to be redeveloped into a multifunctional building with a 155-metre residential tower at the rear.
36. Botanische Tuin Afrikaanderwijk
The Botanical Garden Afrikaanderwijk is a botanical garden in the Afrikaanderwijk district of Rotterdam. The botanical garden on Afrikaanderplein was founded in 1923 as part of the HBS Van Oldenbarnevelt. The garden was used as a practice room for biology lessons at the HBS and later Van Oldenbarnevelt comprehensive school. Due to a lack of finances, this came to an end around 1975. After that, the garden fell into disrepair somewhat. In the mid-80s, the garden was completely renovated and brought back to the original design. The garden is now a national monument.
37. De Maagd van Holland
The Virgin of Holland is a statue in the center of the Dutch city of Rotterdam, on the Nieuwemarkt on the Gedempte Botersloot. It is a monument erected in honour of the capture of Den Briel by the Sea Beggars on 1 April 1572. The statue, unveiled in 1874 and officially nicknamed the Statue of Liberty, was intended to be the central backdrop for the lavish annual April Day celebrations. It was created by Joseph Graven.
38. De Prinsenmolen
The Prinsenmolen is a ground sailer from 1648 on the Rotte in the Rotterdam borough of Hillegersberg. In 1881, the steam pumping station Berg en Broekse Verlaat was built and the Bergsche Molen, which until then had kept the polder dry together with the Prinsenmolen, was demolished. The Prinsenmolen drained the Berg en Broek polder until 1966, but is now out of operation and has a residential function. The Prinsenmolen is millable.
39. Alexander Nevskikerk
The Church of the Holy Orthodox Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky is a Russian Orthodox church building on the Schiedamsesingel in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The church belongs to the diocese of The Hague and the Netherlands of the Moscow Patriarchate and is the first traditional Russian Orthodox church building in the Netherlands. The services are celebrated in Church Slavonic and the most important readings are repeated in Dutch.
40. Fikkie
Fikkie is a statue of artist Joeki Simák, which is located on the Oude Binnenweg in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. The statue was presented to the city in 1963 in honor of the 10th lustrum of the Rotterdamsch Studenten Corps (RSC). The statue was unveiled on 16 November 1963 by Karel Paul van der Mandele, then chairman of the Board of Curators of the Netherlands School of Economics (NEH). The statue Fikkie symbolizes the comparison with students: young and headstrong.
41. Sint-Bavo
St. Bavo's Church is a Roman Catholic parish church in the Rotterdam district of Pendrecht. The church is the church building of the 'O.L.V. van Lourde parish' which is part of the 'Parish Federation Mary Magdalene'. As part of the 'Designation Program Reconstruction 1940-1945', the church building was designated as a national monument in 2019.
42. Joods Kindermonument
The Jewish Children's Monument in Rotterdam is a monument on the Kop van Zuid in memory of the Jewish children of Rotterdam who were deported and died in the Second World War. The monument is set up as a semicircle on which the names of all the children are listed. It was designed by Wim Quist and unveiled on April 10, 2013.
43. Il grande miracolo
Il grande miracolo is a war memorial on the Pleinweg in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. The monument commemorates the twenty Dutch resistance fighters who were shot by the German occupiers on 12 March 1945 on the Goereesestraat in Rotterdam-Zuid. Marino Marini's artwork was purchased in 1955 to replace a simple memorial nearby, which had to make way for new construction. It was unveiled on 3 May 1958 by a son of one of the executed persons.
44. Bevrijdingsmonument Vreewijk
Liberation Monument Vreewijk is a war memorial in Vreewijk, a neighborhood in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. The monument testifies to the gratitude of the local residents for the liberation at the end of the Second World War.
45. Mariniersmuseum
Netherlands Marine Corps Museum is a museum on the history of the Netherlands Marine Corps. Since December 1995 it has been housed in a building on the Wijnhaven in Rotterdam. Since 2014 it has been one of the four museums managed by the Koninklijke Stichting Defensiemusea (KSD).
46. De Schaduw
The Shadow is a massive concrete sculpture in Rotterdam, designed by Onno Poiesz (1974), inspired by the German bomber Heinkel HE-111. The monument is a stylized scale model of this German bomber. The statue was unveiled on October 10, 2009 by deputy mayor Henk van der Pols. The aircraft stands upright with the nose up and rests on the tail. The statue is about five meters high and four meters twenty wide.
47. Volharding 1
The Volharding 1 is a steam-powered Dutch tugboat. The ship was built as Harmonie 6 at Scheepswerf de Hoop in Hardinxveld for Mr. Van Loon from Vreeswijk. He ordered the ship as a "Zeeland-type" with open bunker hatches and with the mast lowerable forward. The power had to be at least 28 HP. During the sea trials, Mr. P. Sarras acted as captain. A steam-powered upright light engine (generator) was used to generate electricity on board.
48. Waalse Kerk
The Walloon Church with adjoining sexton's house in Rotterdam is located in the Center on the Schiedamse Vest and is a national monument, the church and the sexton's house were built in 1923-1925 in a traditionalist style, somewhat in the style of Kropholler, to a design by J. Verheul Dzn. and J. van Wijngaarden.
49. Wilhelminafontein
In the Dutch city of Rotterdam, there is a Wilhelmina fountain on the Noordereiland on the Burgemeester Hoffmanplein. The monument was placed in 1898 on the occasion of the inauguration of Queen Wilhelmina. It was designed by Prof. Henri Evers, the architect of the Rotterdam City Hall. The statues on the monument are by Simon Miedema, who also designed the statues for the White House in Rotterdam. The monument itself is a column on which a torch-bearing angel stands. The commemorative plaque reads: Tribute to Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands on Her Accession to the Throne.
50. Slavenijmonument Rotterdam
The Slavery Monument is a memorial commemorating the Dutch history of slavery, located in the city of Rotterdam, Netherlands. The monument was designed by Alex da Silva and is situated on Lloydkade in the Lloyd Quarter of the Delfshaven district.
51. Hulstkamp Gebouw
The Hulstkamp building is a national monument on the Maaskade in Rotterdam. It is a landmark building on the north side of the North Island. The Rotterdam architect Jacobus Pieter Stok designed it in 1889 in neo-Renaissance style. Characteristic is the use of red brick, decorated with white bands and ornaments.
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