Rotterdam

:For other places named Rotterdam, see Rotterdam (disambiguation)

History and recent developments

Rotterdam was given city rights on 7 June 1340 by Willem IV of Holland.

Related Topics:
City rights - 7 June - 1340 - Willem IV of Holland

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On May 14, 1940 Rotterdam was bombed by the German Luftwaffe, on the last of five days of war in the Netherlands (save Zeeland). The heart of the city was almost completely destroyed, which Ossip Zadkine later expressed strikingly with his statue Stad zonder hart (City without a heart). The statue is located near the Leuvehaven, not far from the Erasmusbrug in the north of the city. From the 1950s through the 1970s the city was rebuilt. It remained quite windy and open until the city councils from the 1980s on began developing an active architectural policy. Daring and new styles of apartments, office buildings and recreation facilities resulted in a more 'livable' city center with a new skyline. In the 1990s a new business centre on the south bank of the river, the Kop van Zuid has been built.

Related Topics:
May 14 - 1940 - Rotterdam was bombed - Luftwaffe - Zeeland - Ossip Zadkine - Erasmusbrug - 1950s - 1970s - Wind - 1980s - Apartment - 1990s

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Rotterdam, Amsterdam, The Hague and a number of smaller cities in the west of the country are expanding towards each other to the extent that the entire area is sometimes denoted as a single metropole known as Randstad.

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