History
Founded in 1328, it is the second oldest school in the Netherlands with recorded date of establishment (after the Johan de Witt-gymnasium in Dordrecht, established 1253). The privilege to found a Latin school was granted to the town of Rotterdam before Rotterdam received full city rights and therefore the school predates the birth of the city itself by nearly twenty years. It was renamed in 1842, after the famous Rotterdam theologian and humanist Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536). The school is more than a century older than its namesake, and it is unclear whether he attended it.
The school was located at the corner of the Coolsingel and the Laurensstraat until 1937, nowadays C&A, a clothing store, is located at that place, and the school at the Wytemaweg. In May 1940, Rotterdam was heavily bombed by the German aggressor, but the school building survived miraculously. During the war, the occupying German troops used the building as one of their headquarters.
Read more about this topic: Gymnasium Erasmianum
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