Kruipen – Rotterdam, Netherlands - Atlas Obscura

Kruipen

A 60m long snake carrying the colors of the Dutch flag 

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Rotterdam is a very artistic city full of various kinds of art installations, murals and architectural  oddities. For those interested in art, the city can feel like a large museum crossed with a scavenger hunt, being absolutely full of all kinds of art. 

Most of the Rotterdam art also has some kind of function or statement. Sometimes its meant to break the monotony of an otherwise boring building (link to BMW) and other times it is meant to draw attention in some unique way. (Link to the giant hat). The giant sneak that can be found on a wall behind Rotterdam Zoo is exactly such a piece. 

‘Kruipen’ or ‘Crawling ahead’ is the name if a large 60m long painting of a sneak that was put onto an otherwise blank wall in 1985. This was done by the ‘Biologische Educatieve Dienst’ (or the biological educational service) in commission of the zoo to cheer up an otherwise boring and dreary commute from the parking lot to the entrance. 

Ever since the sneak has become a permanent piece of the cities landscape, providing a nice distraction to the visitors of the Vroezenpark park that is across the highway street. Very few people seem to know what its function is or why its there, some think that it is a critique on the country, others that its some kind of nationalistic symbol, but like the Blijdorp snake regardless. 

Now, 35 years later the sneak has lost some of his functionality as the Zoo has opened a new entrance on the parking lot side, and people rarely walk around the terrain anymore. The zoo still maintains the wall though, taking down any grafiti and other vandalism while making sure that the sneak stays as nice and vibrant as it was all those years ago. It is in the colors of the flag after all!

Know Before You Go

The snake is freely accessible. The easiest way to see it is from across the road when walking in the Vroesenpark. (Which is a nice park btw!)