Rotterdam

Rotterdam, the second-largest city in the Netherlands by population and the largest by total area, sits within the province of South Holland at the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta. Its development began in 1270 with the construction of a dam on the Rotte River, and the settlement received city rights in 1340 from Count William IV. The city’s early economy relied on herring fishing until the Eighty Years' War, after which its easy sea access spurred growth. During the 17th century, Rotterdam became a hub for the Atlantic slave trade, with local merchants pioneering Dutch involvement, and it housed chambers of both the Dutch East India Company and the Dutch West India Company. The completion of the Nieuwe Waterweg in 1872 triggered a major expansion of port activity and population, leading to construction on the river’s south bank. The 1898 Witte Huis skyscraper, inspired by American office buildings, stood as Europe’s tallest office building upon completion. In World War I, the city served as a global spy centre due to Dutch neutrality, hosting British intelligence offices and thousands of Belgian refugees. World War II brought near-total destruction of the city centre during the German bombing of May 1940, which killed 900 and left 80,000 homeless. This devastation later gave rise to a distinctive architectural landscape featuring works by designers such as Rem Koolhaas and Piet Blom. Today, Rotterdam is Europe’s largest seaport, with the Rhine, Meuse, and Scheldt rivers providing waterway access to Western Europe’s industrial heartland. The city’s population in 2022 was 655,468, representing over 180 nationalities, and it forms part of the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan area of roughly 2.7 million people—the most populous in the country and the tenth-largest in the European Union.