Rotterdam, The Netherlands |
Rotterdam Facts |
Rotterdam is the Gateway to Europe. It is currently Europe’s largest and one of the top 5 most important ports in the world. |
- Oldest statue in the Netherlands: Desiderius Erasmus at the foot of the St. Laurens Church dates back to 1622. Erasmus is regarded as one of the greatest humanists in Dutch history.
- For the construction of ‘Maasvlakte 2’, an expansion of the port of Rotterdam, almost 340 million cubic metres of sand will be needed. This is more than 225 times a full football stadium. This sand is supplied from sand extraction pits in the sea.
- Rotterdam has the highest number of architectural firms in the Netherlands. In 2008, for the fourth year in a row, Rotterdam was acclaimed by the Dutch building industry as the leading city in architecture.
- Rotterdam has more professional football clubs than any other place in the Netherlands: Sparta, Excelsior and Feyenoord. Feyenoord was the first Dutch team to win the European Cup, the World Cup and the UEFA Cup. Football stadium “De Kuip” opened in 1937.
- Rotterdam has always been in the top 5 of the best event cities of the Netherlands.
- Rotterdam is home to one of the best known lingerie designers in the world: Marlies Dekkers. Worldwide, there are over 1,000 sales outlets, including Antwerp, Paris, Bangkok and many other world cities.
- Rotterdam is the greenest city in the Netherlands with 75m2 of public parks and gardens. The city has almost 540,000 trees, almost as many as there are inhabitants. By 2025, CO2 emissions in and around Rotterdam must be reduced to 50% of their 1990 levels.
- Rotterdam has had a rich hip-hop scene since the early 1980s and has become a cradle of house and dance music.
- Rotterdam has never rivaled Amsterdam for cultural life. But the Boymans-van Beuningen Museum has a major art collection, and the city is the home of Erasmus University, established in 1973. Rotterdam's parks and recreational lakes have become famous.
- The city hosts the largest open-air market in the Netherlands in Binnenrotte, every Tuesdays and Saturday.
- Lijnbaan that houses the koopgoot (literally the shopping gutter, because it is situated below the street level) is the oldest pedestrian shopping area in the Netherlands.
Read more information about Rotterdam here: Rotterdam Facts and Figures.