The couple at the tourist office ask very politely where the
Old City is. The one that looks
like Amsterdam, filled with the picturesque waterways, the elegant centuries
old buildings and proud canal houses?
The lady at the front desk blinks once or twice and then pulls out a map, pointing out the Town Hall and old Church.
The lady at the front desk blinks once or twice and then pulls out a map, pointing out the Town Hall and old Church.
“There’s not much left” she tells them. “It was
all destroyed during World War Two”.
No city in the Netherlands suffered as much as Rotterdam did
during World War Two. In May 1940 the Germans bombed the city: 80,000 were made
homeless, 900 were killed. The city was leveled.
Reminders of the devastation of this one event are
everywhere. One of the city’s best-known sculptures is Ossip Zadkine’s The City Devastated, located by the
Maritime Museum at the entry to the harbour. It depicts a man twisted in agony,
his palms thrust upwards, his face toward the sky, and his heart missing from
his chest. It’s powerful, evocative and heavy, and an absolute must see for any
visitor.
At night, a series of white and red lights glow in the
pavement. If you’re treading along a trail of these, you’re following the
fireline, the places where the bombs dropped. It’s only when you’ve covered most
of the city on foot or by bike that you realise the extent and ferocity of
which the bombs were unleashed. The city was saturated in bombs.
Today, Rotterdam is world-renowned for it’s risky,
envelope-pushing architecture. It’s respected the world over for it’s eclectic,
modern skyline and is home to the Netherlands Architecture Institute.
But it’s hard to look at how the city has physically reshaped
itself, with it’s shiny yellow cube houses built to resemble industrial trees,
it’s bizarre lust for ultra modern, futuristic architecture and experimental
design, and not see it for what it really is: a desperate attempt to search for
a new identity after the devastation of war.
Rotterdam is still known as the city without a heart.