Rotterdam City Map Poster

About Rotterdam

The settlement at the lower end of the fen stream Rotte (or Rotta) on the river's edge, was first mentioned as Rotterdam in a document from 1275. It became a substantial city later and its harbour started to expand on both sides of the Nieuwe Maas channel leading into what is now called Rotterdam Harbor. The growing village near this "harbour" was then called "Rotterdam", meaning 'silt land' ("Rott" = silt; "A(a)d" or "-amme/emme/umme/" = land). This name may have come from either around 880 when Vikings sailed upriver and established a settlement near Gouda, or from around 1025 by settlers living in protected areas along rivers whose dikes had been breached by floods. In 1250, Count Floris IV of Holland granted city rights to Rotterdam, which then had approximately 2,000 inhabitants.