PHOTO GALLERY

In the photo gallery you will find photos from the author's stay, when she was writing a book and mapping the story of František Škroup in Rotterdam. The photos complement what you will find in the book "WHERE IS MY HOME?", which is provided with a large picture appendix. Thanks to the Rijskmuseum Amsterdam for providing some historical photos.

The NEWS of summer 2024!

In the book "Where is My Home?" you will find a photograph of a house that today stands approximately on the same place as the house in which František Škroup rented an apartment in Rotterdam. In front of this house there is a historic canal named Steiger.
At the time when Franz lived, the house was directly washed by water from the canal on one side, and on the other side there was a busy street and the entrance to the house. However, this has changed over the years, as Rotterdam was almost razed to the ground by the Nazis during World War II. The appearance of the city centre is completely different than in the years 1860 - 1862. Nevertheless, with the help of cadastral maps and great experts from the Rotterdam archive, I was able to identify quite accurately the street (name: Hang straat) and the house located in approximately the same place where the composer lived. The book was published on May 27, 2024, and now that I am writing this post, it is June 17, 2024 and everything is different again! The photograph in the pictorial appendix of the book has become historic! Why? Because the Steiger canal has been expanded and a special surfing pool has been built in it! Yes, one of the first such pools in the world that allows so-called urban surfing, or surfing in the city. In this case, right in the city center! It's like surfing the waves on Wenceslas Square in Prague. If František Škroup were to visit Rottedam today, he would find out that surfers surf the waves in front of his house. This surf pool will be inaugurated to the public on July 6, 2024.
Below is a video that is in Dutch, but pictures are more than telling to give you an idea. In addition, from 1 minute 11 second to 1 minute 15 seconds, you can notice a row of houses standing right next to the canal in the camera's view. One of them, second from the right, is a white glass house. This house stands on approximately the same site where the house in which František Škroup rented an apartment stood in 1860.

WALK "IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF FRANZ SKRAUP IN THE CITY OF ROTTERDAM"

Are you going on holiday to the Netherlands? Have you decided to visit the city of Rotterdam? Well done! You won't regret it! If you feel like it, you can take a pleasant walk through the city and follow in the footsteps of the author of the Czech national anthem and the first Czech opera as the author of the book "Where is my home?" followed them. You can see where the hotel he lived was located, where the house in which he later rented an apartment stood, or where the theater in which he worked was. During the walk, you can also visit and see other attractions of the city that are not related to Franz Skraup. The whole walk ends in the cemetery at the composer's grave, where you can light a candle or lay a small flower. The walk is approximately 4 km long and if you would like to walk back from the cemetery to the city centre, then 8 km. But you don't have to worry about your feet, you can easily take a bus from the cemetery to Rotterdam Centraal station. If you want to try the walk, just download the file below, to find a description of the route and all the necessary information. I wish you a great day in Rotterdam!