Scheepshelling Koningspoort

The Scheepshelling Koningspoort features a wooden slipway structure that sits right against the water of the Oude Haven. This site served as a nineteenth century shipyard for repairing iron and wooden vessels, back when the harbor was the industrial engine of Rotterdam. In eighteen seventy-seven, the yard’s master shipbuilder, Arie van der Schuyt, oversaw the maintenance of coastal barges here. His crew hauled heavy ships onto dry land using a mechanical cradle system that remains tucked into the modern dockside architecture today.