Rotterdam: the Pesthuis pediment, 115 years in storage, returns to Feijenoord
· BehindLines newsroom
A monumental 18th-century sandstone pediment, kept in storage by Museum Rotterdam for more than a century, is back in the Feijenoord district, on the spot where it once crowned the entrance to the Pesthuis, a building completed in 1716. According to the museum, it stays there from 18 September to 29 November 2026 as part of the 12th International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR), titled "Systems of Support". The History Blog reported on it on 9 November.
An object of nearly five tonnes
The museum gives the pediment (a "timpaan") as 9.4 metres wide, just over 2 metres high and weighing 4,980 kilos. It carries seven coats of arms of city council members, flanked by two river gods referring to the Maas, the Rotte and the water around the city.
The story of a vanished building
The Pesthuis was the first Rotterdam building put up on the south bank, meant to house people with contagious diseases outside the centre. The museum specifies that it was in fact never used as a plague house. From 1825 the Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij settled on the site, and Feijenoord became an industrial district. The building disappeared around 1900; only the pediment was saved. It entered the museum's collection in 1910 but was never displayed because of its size and weight.
An installation on the former Hunter Douglas site
The architecture firm LNML designed an installation for the biennale on the reuse of stone, of which the pediment is part. It stands at the Piekfabriek, on the former Hunter Douglas industrial land, which is due for a deep transformation with housing, workplaces and amenities. The pediment remains in the museum's collection, on long-term loan.
Rob Noordhoek, curator and historian at Museum Rotterdam, says he is delighted that the piece can be displayed in full again after more than a century, and finds it especially fitting that it returns to where it came from.