The city of Rotterdam is filled with modern masterpieces combined with some historical hidden gems giving this city a place on your bucket list. This city offers a lot of variety from taking a walk to shopping in the koopgoot, or passing on a bit of culture.
Architecture & Landmarks listed in Rotterdam
We made a list of the most interesting buildings and amazing structures, showing you all the magnificence Rotterdam has to offer you.
Make sure to bring a camera when you’re discovering Rotterdam because you’ll walk by many stunning places, amazing buildings, and international renowned street-art murals where it’s easy to create a unique photograph.
The Red Apple
Address: Wijnbrugstraat 140, 3011 XW Rotterdam
The Red Apple is a multifunctional apartment block in the city of Rotterdam, which is quite remarkable because of its height and construction techniques. Something special about the building is the red staggered aluminum facade and we can call this modern architecture.
The tower was built in 2005 and is 128 meters high, which makes the building one of the tallest in Rotterdam. The apartment block has 40 floors and 152 apartments, while the ground floor serves as a hotspot for shops and restaurants.
De Brug
Address: Nassaukade 5, 3071 Rotterdam
De Brug is a modern building, situated next to the Meuse river, and serves as headquarters for Unilever Bestfoods Nederland.
The building is 133 meters long, consists of 4 floors, and floats about 25 meters above the ground. The fact that De Brug (Dutch for “The Bridge”) is built over an existing factory – which continued to operate during the construction – makes this building a one-in-a-kind.
de Bijenkorf
Address: Coolsingel 105, 3012 AG Rotterdam
‘De Bijenkorf’ is the luxury department store situated in different cities around the Netherlands such as Amsterdam, Den Haag, and Rotterdam. In this clothing store, you can buy different exclusive brands such as Alexander McQueen, Gucci and Stone Island.
The building opened in 1957 and was one of the first buildings that was constructed after World War 2, making it the sign of reconstruction for Rotterdam.
Library Rotterdam
Address: Hoogstraat 110, 3011 PV Rotterdam
If you want to read books, hire DVDs and e-books, the library of Rotterdam is an ideal place for you. The Library has a collection of more than 500.000 books, CDs, DVDs, e-books, etc. Furthermore, the building also serves for activities, workshops, and film screenings.
The library of Rotterdam has existed for over 400 years. As a result, the library contains a lot of special books and collections; from old scrolls of parchment to unique illustrations and medieval manuscripts.
With more than 2.4 million visitors each year, the library is one of the most visited cultural places and maybe the most visited cultural place in Rotterdam. The building makes you think about the center Pompidou – situated in Paris and is sometimes called ‘The glass waterfall” because of the steel tubes that run down the glass facade.
Drijvend Paviljoen
Address: Tillemakade 99, 3072 AX Rotterdam,
The Floating Pavilion is a unique location where you can organize different events. You can hire these locations for conferences, presentations, dinners, and many more.
The building itself is situated on Wilhelminapier in Rotterdam and it gives an added value to different events through its innovative and cultural character. It has a height of 12 meters and consists of 3 three floating hemispheres with a floor surface that is equal to 4 tennis courts.
Rotterdam Koopgoot
Address: Hoogstraat, Rotterdam
The Koopgoot, also known as the Beurstraverse, is the main shopping street in the city of Rotterdam for about 20 years. In this street you can shop at your convenience without the sound of cars because this street is completely car-free.
The Koopgoot also offers more than 60 other shops, such as the earlier mentioned ‘Bijenkorf’, Zara, C&A, and many more. You wouldn’t want to miss this, do you?
Depot Boijmans van Beuningen
Address: Melkkoppad 15, 3015 CR Rotterdam
Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen is a 15 000 m2 storage facility and can be compared to a museum. Right now it’s still under construction but when it’s finished in 2021, it will have 6 floors and will be about 40 meters high.
This building will contain over 150 000 art pieces and this will be accessible for everyone who wants to see it. The collection will be very extensive and will display a variety of different styles such as Baroque, Renaissance, and many more.
POW! WOW! Festival in AfrikaanderWijk
Address: Pretorialaan 1, 3072 ER Rotterdam
POW! WOW! Is one of the most famous urban street art festivals in the entire world. During the festival, there are a lot of activities all over rotterdam: from live painting with graffiti to breakdance battles and hip hop or rap concerts.
The festival is entirely free, and people from all around the world come to Rotterdam to visit this festival. POW! WOW! has a major impact on the view of Rotterdam because the graffiti will remain on the buildings, even when the festival ended.
POW! WOW! Festival also takes places in other famous cities around the world such as Los Angeles, Taiwan, and Hong Kong but it’s already active for a couple of years in Rotterdam
The POW WOW festival is spread all over the Afrikaanderwijk and also offers a lot of famous paint artists such as Danny Rumble, Didier Jaba Mathieu, and Dourone.
City Hall Rotterdam
Address: Coolsingel 40, 3011 AD Rotterdam
The City Hall of Rotterdam was built between 1914 and 1920 and is one of the only buildings that survived a bombardment in the center of Rotterdam during World War 2 in 1940.
The town Hall also has some particularities for example the 11 medaillons at the outside of the building . When you walk around the building you can also notice some special sculptures such as the statue of Johan van Oldenbarnevelyt.
If you want, you can always ask for a guided tour of the city Hall but you need to be with a group of friends.
Sylvette Statue
Address: Westersingel 83, 3015 LC Rotterdam
Sylvette is a statue made by Carl Nesjar featuring a young woman with a ponytail named. Sylvette. The sculpture itself is 7.5m high and 4.5m wide and is based on the sketches of the famous painter Picasso.
Sylvette was a muse to Picasso, and she served as a model for many drawings and small sculptures of him.
Rotterdam Centraal railway station
Address: Stationssingel 10, 3013 HA Rotterdam
Rotterdam Centraal railway station is the main railway station in the city and has an average of 170.000 passengers per day.
The railway station was officially opened in 2014 by King Willem-Alexander and contains 7 platforms and 15 tracks. Next to the normal trains, you could also make use of the Eurostar to England and Thalys to Lille-Europe. This station is a nice piece of modern architecture as it has an arrow-shaped shape.
Tip: In this station, you can rent a bike which can be useful to explore the city and there are lockers to deposit your luggage.
Euromast
Address: Parkhaven 20, 3016 GM Rotterdam
With its 185 meters, the Euromast is the biggest tower in the Netherlands that is accessible for public, making it an essential part of the skyline of Rotterdam.
The tower itself was built in 1960 and was originally 100 meters high, however In 1970 expanded with a Space Tower making it 185 meters high.
In this tower, you can take lunch in the Brasserie or even spend the night, since there are 2 exclusive suites in the tower.
Tip: We recommend you to take the lift to the top of this building and you will be surprised with a wonderful view of the city of Rotterdam.
Hotel New York Rotterdam
Address: Koninginnenhoofd 1, 3072 AD Rotterdam
The Hotel New York is situated in the former office building of the cruise line Holland America Line that was active until 1989. It opened in 1993 and it is situated in the Kop Van Zuid neighborhood.
The hotel currently has 72 rooms, and two of them are located in the towers.
Market Hall
The Market Hall is a residential- and commercial building with an indoor market Hall.
Next to the Market Hall, the building also has 228 apartments and 4600 m2 of shops and restaurants. This building is also accessible with a car because there’s a parking garage for over 1000 cars.
The market hall has a wonderful view from the outside and also is a modern architectural masterpiece.
The White House
The White House is an art nouveau building situated in the center of Rotterdam and just like the City Hall, it survived a World War 2 bombardment in 1940.
The white house was the first skyscraper in Europe, and has long held the title of being the biggest office building in the continent.
The property is about 43 meters high with 11 floors and on the roof, and includes a lookout platform that you can only reach with an elevator.
Erasmusbrug
Address: 3011 BN Rotterdam
The Erasmus bridge is a bridge that runs over the New Meuse and is situated in the center of Rotterdam.
The bridge has a length of 802 meters and connects the center with the Kop van Zuid neighborhood and was put into service in 1996.
Nicknamed “the Swan”, the Erasmus Bridge is the largest and heaviest movable bridge in Europe.
Delfshaven
Delfshaven is one of the most historical and coziest districts in the city of Rotterdam. in this part of the city you can still feel the atmosphere of the preoologic Rotterdam with its historic places just as the Pilgrim Fathers’ church and the city brewery ‘ De Pelgrim’.
The Cube House Rotterdam
These cube houses are a set of houses built innovatively (in the form of cubes) in Rotterdam.
There are 38 small cubes where you can live in and 2 bigger ones called super-cubes. These houses are located on Overblaak street, right above the Blaak metro station.
Luchtsingel Rotterdam
The Luchtsingel is a pedestrian bridge made of wood that is 390 meters long, and was festively opened in 2015.
The bridge connects Rotterdam center with Rotterdam north, and brought attention to an urban area of Rotterdam which was long forgotten by real estate developers. In a way the bridge has attracted tourists, which caused the area to become more active and attractive to local traders.
Create time to discover Rotterdam
Rotterdam is filled with unique locations that are worth visiting: from tourist attractions and modern finished buildings to culinary attractions and urban neighborhoods.
There is actually so much to experience in the city that you can easily fill a city- or weekend-trip to Rotterdam.
This is a post written by guest contributor, Kenny from the blog Wanderlust Pulse.
Author’s Bio: After traveling through Europe for various years, Kenny founded Wanderlust Pulse, in which he documents his favorite photo locations and travel itineraries. After visiting the Pow Wow festival, he decided to spend a few extra days in Rotterdam to explore the city and its attractions.
