Rotte (river)

The Rotte is a river in the Rhine-Maas-delta in the Netherlands. The Rotte is the eponym of the city of Rotterdam: the city was founded in the 13th century when a dam was built along the river.

The river was originally named Rotta, from rot, 'muddy' and a, 'water', thus 'muddy water'.

It rises in Moerkapelle in the so-called Green Heart. It used to drain the Zuidplas lake until it was reclaimed in 1840.

It flows past Bleiswijk and Bergschenhoek; and then the village of Hillegersberg, which was built on a sand dune and was one of the few places in the marsh land that could be permanently settled before the dikes were constructed. In the churchyard there are the ruins of a 13th Century castle from, whose origins probably date back to times of the Roman Empire. Originally it flowed into the Nieuwe Maas in Rotterdam; however, the lower reach of the river was dammed off, and the water now flows to Nieuwe Maas via several man-made canals.

On the outskirts of Rotterdam, the Rotte merges with the Crooswijksesingel. Here we find an old factory building of the Heineken brewery, which was brought here in the city due to the efforts of Lodewijk Pincoffs ().

The Inner Rotte, that is, the part of the river in the Rotterdam city area, had to give way in 1869-1871 to the construction of the "Luchtspoor", an elevated section of the railway line. The river water was diverted via the Stokvisverlaat, the Delftse Vaart and Vlasmarktsluis to the Leuvehaven (). When the Luftwaffe bombed the city in 1940, this connection was also damaged. During the Second World War, city planner Willem Gerrit Witteveen () created a new connection to Leuvehaven. After the war, the Rotte was no longer used for freight transport.

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Wikipedia