When the Witte Huis (the White House) opened in 1898 as a, in its own words, 'big business building in the American spirit,' Rotterdam had nothing else like it. Eleven storeys tall, clad in Art Nouveau terracotta and resting on a thousand timber piles driven into boggy ground, it was Europe's first skyscraper.

The architect, Willem Molenbroek, was besotted with New York. The city's nickname today is Manhattan aan de Maas.

It survived the 1940 bombing that levelled the city centre, making it a rare witness to what came before. Less known is its other wartime role: during the First World War, companies inside served as cover for German espionage. British agents worked 500 metres away. Both sides knew about each other.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours use the Witte Huis to trace Rotterdam's reinvention, from its ambitions as a New York of the North Sea to a city rebuilt from almost nothing.