This guide follows six places that show how Rotterdam was rebuilt and how it lives from the water: the Stadhuis on the Coolsingel, the Cube Houses by the Oude Haven, the Waalse Kerk, the Maritime Museum, the merchant navy memorial De Boeg and the Erasmusbrug. They sit on one line from the city hall down to the Nieuwe Maas, and all six are stops on our scavenger hunt.
Stadhuis
Rotterdam's city hall was built between 1914 and 1920 to a design by Henri Evers, who also designed the Calandmonument. Queen Wilhelmina was present when the foundation stone was laid in 1915, and the building was opened with a special council meeting on 1 September 1920. It is one of the very few buildings in central Rotterdam that survived the bombing of 14 May 1940 almost intact, although the heat of the fires around it damaged its concrete. Today it is still the seat of the city council and a national monument.
- The clock tower above the main entrance on the Coolsingel, 71 metres high, with a gilded angel by the sculptor Johan Keller on top.
- The long brick and stone facade in a Renaissance Revival style, which looks very different from the post-war buildings facing it across the Coolsingel.
Cube Houses
The Cube Houses (Kubuswoningen) were designed by the architect Piet Blom and finished in 1984 as part of the new Oude Haven district. Each house is a cube tipped on one corner and set on a pillar, and Blom compared each one to a tree, so that the group together forms a forest. The complex was built over the Blaak, a busy traffic road, and links the market area to the old harbour.
There are 38 small cubes and two larger ones, all joined together. Each house has three levels: a living floor, a middle floor with two bedrooms and a bathroom, and a small pyramid-shaped room at the top. Most are private homes, but one is open as a show cube, and the larger cubes became a hostel in 2009.
- The sloping walls and windows: from inside, almost nothing is at a right angle.
- The pencil-shaped Blaaktoren right next to the cubes, part of the same development.
Waalse Kerk
The Waalse Kerk (Walloon Church) belongs to the Walloon Reformed congregation, which has met in Rotterdam since 1591 and has its roots among French-speaking Protestants. The present church and sexton's house were built in 1923–1924 to a design by J. Verheul Dzn. and J. van Wijngaarden, in dark red brick with an octagonal tower and spire. It replaced an older church on the Korte Hoogstraat, and the organ by Bätz-Witte from 1865 came with it from there. The building was seriously damaged in 1940 and stands on the edge of the area destroyed that day. It has been a national monument since 2000 and was thoroughly restored in 2008.
- The wrought-iron lamps and fittings inside by the designer W. H. Gispen, which have survived almost unchanged.
Maritime Museum
The Maritiem Museum on the Leuvehaven was founded in 1874 by Prince Hendrik of the Netherlands and is often called the oldest maritime museum in the country. Its collection has grown to about 850,000 objects covering six centuries of shipping, from sea charts by Joan Blaeu and drawings by Willem van de Velde to displays on how the port of Rotterdam works today.
Since 2014 the museum has also run the open-air Maritime Museum Harbour in the Leuvehaven next door, with historic vessels, cranes and machinery from the port's past, some of them still in working order.
- The Mataró model, a Spanish votive ship model more than six centuries old, often described as the oldest ship model in Europe.
- The red cast-iron lighthouse from Hook of Holland, which once marked the entrance to the Nieuwe Waterweg and now stands in the museum harbour.
De Boeg
De Boeg (The Bow) is the national monument to the Dutch merchant navy, for the seamen who lost their lives in the Second World War. It was designed by the sculptor Fred Carasso and unveiled in 1957 at the mouth of the Leuvehaven, where the harbour meets the river. A tall, stylised steel ship's bow seems to cut through waves of stone.
- The inscription Zij hielden koers, meaning They kept their course.
- The group of figures Carasso added in 1965: a helmsman, sailors and a drowned man, linked by a rope to part of a ship.
Erasmusbrug
The Erasmusbrug crosses the Nieuwe Maas and links the city centre with Rotterdam Zuid. It was designed by Ben van Berkel and opened by Queen Beatrix on 6 September 1996, and it is named after Erasmus of Rotterdam, the Renaissance scholar. With its single white pylon, 139 metres high and bent at an angle, it soon got the nickname De Zwaan (The Swan).
The bridge is 802 metres long and has an 89-metre bascule section that opens for tall ships, the largest and heaviest of its kind in Western Europe. Shortly after it opened, the bridge turned out to sway in strong wind, and dampers were added to calm the cables.
- The view back over the city from the middle of the bridge, with the old Holland America Line building and the towers of the Kop van Zuid on the south bank.
How to see them in one walk
Start at the Stadhuis on the Coolsingel and walk east to the Cube Houses by the Oude Haven. Then follow the Hoogstraat back west to its far end, where the Waalse Kerk stands just beyond it. From there head south to the Maritime Museum on the Leuvehaven, walk along the harbour to De Boeg at its mouth, and finish on the Erasmusbrug, where you can walk out over the river.
See Rotterdam with World City Trail
Our Rotterdam scavenger hunt turns the city centre into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops, starting at the Stadhuis, and all six places in this guide are stops, along with the Laurenskerk, the Witte Huis, the Wereldmuseum and the Calandmonument.
There is also a self-guided walking tour and an outdoor escape game in Rotterdam, for people who prefer a different format.
Play the Rotterdam scavenger hunt →
Take the self-guided walking tour of Rotterdam →
Play the outdoor escape game in Rotterdam →
Facts checked in October 2026.