A bronze statue of Desiderius Erasmus, Rotterdam's most famous son, standing in a small square near the Laurenskerk. Erasmus — the humanist scholar, theologian, and author of "In Praise of Folly" — was born here in 1466, and the city has named its university, its bridge, and countless streets after him. This statue, cast in 1622, is the oldest in the country.
The figure shows Erasmus reading a book, head bowed in concentration — a pose so characteristic that it has become the default image of the scholar. The square is quiet and easy to miss in the rush of modern Rotterdam, but it is worth pausing here: this statue is one of the only pre-war objects left standing in the city centre, a survivor of the bombing that erased almost everything else.