Rotterdam › Places and landmarks
Witte Huis
The white office building of 1898 by the Oude Haven, one of the first high-rise buildings in Europe.
Photo: Thomas Dahlstrøm Nielsen, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
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When it was finished in 1898, the Witte Huis was among the tallest office buildings in Europe: 43 metres and ten floors of white glazed brick, with its corner towers and its roof like a castle’s. Its builders took the idea from the new office blocks of America.
It survived the bombing of 1940, and it stands at the corner of the Oude Haven and the Wijnhaven, looking out over the old boats to the red Willemsbrug. Visit it in 3D ›
More in Rotterdam
City HallRotterdam’s town hall of 1920 on the Coolsingel, one of the few buildings in the centre that came through the bombing of 1940.
Erasmus BridgeThe white cable-stayed bridge over the Maas, nicknamed the Swan, which became the sign of the new Rotterdam.
Oude HavenRotterdam’s oldest harbour, full of old sailing barges, with terraces along its quays.
Cube housesPiet Blom’s yellow houses tilted on their corners, a forest of cubes on top of a footbridge over the Blaak.
MarkthalA horseshoe arch of flats over a covered market, with the biggest artwork in the Netherlands on its ceiling.
LaurenskerkThe great late-Gothic church of the city, burnt out in 1940 and rebuilt, the last medieval building of the centre.
SchielandshuisA 17th-century classical palace among the towers, which came through the bombing of 1940.
Maritiem MuseumThe maritime museum on the Leuvehaven, with old cranes, a lightship and working boats moored outside.
De Verwoeste StadOssip Zadkine’s bronze figure with a hole torn through its body, the memorial to the bombing of 1940.
LijnbaanEurope’s first shopping street built for people on foot, opened in 1953 in the rebuilt centre.
EuromastThe tower in Het Park by the Maas, built for the Floriade of 1960 and raised to 185 metres in 1970.
The portThe biggest port in Europe, which runs some 40 kilometres from the city to the North Sea.