de Doelen
Rotterdam's 1966 concert and congress building, home hall of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.
De Doelen is the main concert building of Rotterdam and the resident hall of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. It replaced a nineteenth-century concert hall destroyed in the 1940 bombardment and reopened on the Schouwburgplein in 1966. Behind the marble-clad front are the Grote Zaal, seating around 2,200, the Eduard Flipse Zaal, the Jurriaanse Zaal and a set of smaller rooms used for chamber music, congresses and education. Roughly 600 concerts and events take place there each year.
The Grote Zaal is a shoebox hall with a large concert organ, built by Flentrop in 1968, and is widely praised for its acoustics; recordings by the Rotterdam Philharmonic have been made there for decades. Programming runs from symphonic and chamber repertoire to jazz, world music and contemporary work, and the building also hosts Poetry International and parts of the International Film Festival Rotterdam. A wing added in 1997 provided additional halls and foyers on the Kruisplein side.
Highlights
- Grote Zaal seating about 2,200 with a 1968 Flentrop concert organ
- Home venue of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra
- Four halls used for symphonic, chamber, jazz and world music
- Marble-clad 1960s facade on the Schouwburgplein
