Rotte (river)

The Rotte is a river in the Rhine-Meuse Delta that rises near Moerkapelle in the Netherlands, flows past Bleiswijk and Bergschenhoek through the so-called Groene Hart, and flows into the Nieuwe Maas in Rotterdam. The Rotte is the namesake of the city of Rotterdam, which was founded in the 14th century when a dam was built on the river.

In the process, the Rotte flows past the village of Hillegersberg, which lies on a sand dune and is thus one of the few places in this marshland that could be permanently settled even before the organized construction of dikes. In the cemetery are the ruins of a 13th century castle, whose original construction probably dates back to Roman times.

On the outskirts of Rotterdam, the Rotte flows into the Crosswijkesingel, where you will find the old factory building of the Heineken brewery, which settled in the city for a time due to the efforts of Lodewijk Pincoffs.

The Binnenrotte, the part of the river in the Rotterdam urban area, had to give way to the construction of the Luchtspoor, a railway line, between 1869 and 1871. Since then it flowed via the Stokvisverlaat, the Delftse Vaart and the Vlasmarktsluis into the Leuvehaven. When the Luftwaffe bombed the city in 1940, this connection was also damaged. During the Second World War, however, the city planner W.G. Witteveen had a new connection built at the Leuvehaven. Since the Second World War, however, it has no longer played a role in inland waterway traffic.

The construction of the east-west line of the Rotterdam Metro interrupted the direct connection between the Rotte and the Nieuwe Maas. Since then, the water of the river is led through an underground canal at the Oostplein.

Even after the railway stopped using the Rotte area in 1993, plans to dredge the old riverbed and fill it with water failed. Instead, there is now an event area where, for example, markets and the like take place. The former dam was located where the Hoogstraat now crosses the Binnenrotte.