Groot Handelsgebouw

Right next to Rotterdam Central Station is one of the biggest icons of Rotterdam’s post-war reconstruction: the Groot Handelsgebouw.

After some 338,000 m2 of corporate space was lost during the bombings, many entrepreneurs were left without accommodation. During the war, Frits Pot already made his first sketches for a multi-tenant business building, which was eventually designed by architect Huig (Hugh) Maaskant. Six years after the first pile entered the ground, the building was festively opened by Queen Juliana in 1953. The grandeur of this building symbolises a vision for the future of Rotterdam: prosperous and vibrant.