Rotterdam's Stadhuis or City Hall was completed in 1920, and the story of how it got built is pure civic mischief. In an open competition, most judges preferred a rival design. The head of the jury, who happened to be the mayor, awarded the commission to his friend Willem Kromhout anyway.

It survived the 1940 bombing that levelled the city around it. A popular myth holds that German bombers deliberately spared it to preserve the population registers, later used to deport Rotterdam's Jewish community. There is no evidence for this. What is real: bullet holes from a confused Dutch-on-Dutch shootout in May 1940 are still visible in the facade, including in the wedding hall inside.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours use the Stadhuis to introduce Rotterdam's wartime story and the figures on its facade, including a Flemish merchant so rich that Laurenskerk's bells rang for eleven hours on the day of his funeral.