Rotterdam - Coolsingel

The main street of the central area on the right bank of the Maas is the Coolsingel. At the near end of this wide street, on the left, stands the Town Hall (Stadhuis), built between 1914 and 1920 in Dutch Renaissance style, with a handsome tower (beautiful carillon) and a richly decorated interior. In front of it is a statue of the great international lawyer Hugo Grotius, who was Grand Pensionary of Rotterdam from 1576 to 1586. Opposite the Town Hall, in Stadhuisplein, is a war memorial designed by Mari Andriessen. Farther down the Coolsingel, on the left, is the Bijenkorf ("Beehive") department store (by Marcel Breuer, 1958). In front of it can be seen a 26m/85ft high work of sculpture, "Construction" (1957) - popularly known in Rotterdam as "the Thing" - by Naum Gabo, a French sculptor of Russian origin. Opposite the Bijenkorf is the Exchange (Beurs), with the Beursplein on its south side. In this square is the World Trade Center, a high-rise building with a facade of greenish-blue glass.