The Pilgrim Fathers' Church
Where they prayed before sailing, still standing.
J. Kuyper โ Public domain ยท Jan Abrahamsz Beerstraaten / Johannes Becx โ Public domain ยท Cornelis Pietersz. de Mooy โ Public domain
An English Protestant congregation that separated from the Church of England and was persecuted for it, fleeing to the Netherlands in 1608 where religious freedom was wider, and settling in Leiden for about twelve years. But they feared their children were dissolving into Dutch society, and decided to emigrate to the New World to build a community on their own terms. They sailed from Delfshaven in 1620 and reached what became Massachusetts โ and they are the origin of American Thanksgiving.
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Delfshaven is the one part of Rotterdam that looks like an old Dutch town โ and that is no accident: it was a separate town until 1886, and it survived the 1940 bombardment that erased Rotterdam's centre because it lay outside the target. It grew in the fourteenth century as the harbour for the inland city of Delft, which had no access to the sea, and that is where the name comes from: Delft's harbour. Today its canals are narrow, its brick houses steep-roofed and a windmill stands on the quay, and it is the only place in the city where you can see what Rotterdam was before the war. The quarter has a world-historical significance: from its quay the Pilgrim Fathers sailed in 1620 aboard the Speedwell on the voyage that ended โ after they changed ships in England to the Mayflower โ on the coast of North America. The church where they prayed before departing still stands and is known as the Pilgrim Fathers' Church.
Where they prayed before sailing, still standing.
Steep-roofed brick houses and a quayside windmill.
Voorhaven, 3024 Rotterdam