De Doelen

De Doelen is Holland's biggest concert and congress building in one. Annually over 600 concerts take place here and more than 1000 congress-related events. One of the most important users of the concert building is the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, which, just like other forms of music from chamber music to pop music, attract thousands of visitors each year to this building which is famous for its excellent acoustics.
The name "Doelen" was originally the name of a 17th-century building used by archers to practice hitting "doelen" (targets) and which was later used by musicians. After having been replaced, on a number of occasions, by other buildings of the same use, it wasn't until 1962 when concerts and congress activities were initiated. First this building was called "Rotterdams Concertgebouw", but later its name was changed back to "De Doelen". Since the current building already reached its physical limits at the beginning of the 1990's, a new state-of-the-art congress building was built and inaugurated in the spring of 2000.