AN EXCEPTIONAL WINTER
“De stad van Katendrecht gezien” [The city seen from Katendrecht.] Lithograph from the series “Het ijsvermaak op de Maas te Rotterdam in februarij 1855.” [Ice Festivities on the Maas at Rotterdam in February 1855]. Designed by G.J. Bos and printed by Pieter Willem Marinus Trap. Size (image): 19 × 27 cm.
During the winter of 1854–1855, prolonged and severe frost prevailed, causing even the broad, tide-influenced Maas at the level of the city to freeze over completely.
Numerous figures are visible on the ice: pedestrians, skaters, horses pulling sledges and simple carts, as well as tents and wooden screens indicating improvised stalls and shelters. Sailing ice craft cut across the flat, snow-covered surface.
The winter of 1854–1855 is regarded as one of the coldest winters of the nineteenth century in Western Europe.
In the background, along the northern bank of the Maas, rises the monumental building complex of the former naval shipyard on the Boompjes. (In the decades that followed, the buildings would gradually be demolished or extensively altered.) To the right, the tower of the Laurenskerk is visible.
