Antwerp (Antwerpen in Dutch, Anvers in French — population 530,000 in the city, 1.2 million in the province — the second largest city in Belgium and the most important port city in Northern Europe) sits on the Scheldt River 88km from the sea and is one of the most historically significant cities in the world: in the 16th century (approximately 1500–1585), Antwerp was the most important commercial city in the Western world — the financial and trade center of the entire northern European economy, the city where Christopher Columbus's voyages were financed (by the Antwerp banking houses of Fugger and Welser), where the first stock exchange in the world was established in permanent premises (the Antwerp Beurs, 1531 — the first building built specifically for regular trading), where Rubens (the most prolific and commercially successful artist of the Flemish Baroque) was born, lived and died, and where Christophe Plantin established the most technologically advanced printing house in the world (the Plantin-Moretus Museum, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site). Antwerp's combination of the extraordinary Baroque heritage (the Cathedral of Our Lady with its four Rubens altarpieces, the Guild Houses on the Grote Markt, the Rubenshuis), the world-leading diamond trade (80% of the world's rough diamonds pass through Antwerp's diamond district — 500 trading companies, 2,000 diamond cutters in a 1km square around the Central Station), and the most vibrant fashion scene in Belgium (the Antwerp Six (1988) — the group of avant-garde Belgian designers including Dries Van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester and Walter Van Beirendonck who transformed global fashion from Antwerp) makes it the most surprisingly rich city in the Benelux.
Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal (the Cathedral of Our Lady — the largest Gothic church in the Benelux (the nave is 123m long, the main tower 123m tall, built over 170 years from 1352 to 1521): the cathedral is the home of the four Rubens altarpieces that are the most important paintings permanently displayed in a church in Belgium: the Elevation of the Cross (1610–1611 — the triptych showing the raising of Christ to the cross, the most muscular and dynamic of the four), the Descent from the Cross (1611–1614 — the most celebrated, frequently reproduced as a Flemish Baroque icon), the Resurrection (1611–1612) and the Assumption of the Virgin (1626 — the over the high altar). The altarpieces were painted for specific locations within the cathedral and have been displayed in those locations without interruption (except during Napoleon's confiscations (1794–1815, when they were taken to Paris) since Rubens's death in 1640.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideGrote Markt (the main market square of Antwerp — the square that was the center of the wealthiest and busiest commercial city in the Western world in the 1550s: the Stadhuis (City Hall, 1561–1564 — the Flemish Renaissance building that was the most modern civic building in Europe at its completion: the flat Classical facade with the Flemish decorative upper stories), the brabo fountain (the 1887 bronze fountain showing the Roman soldier Silvius Brabo throwing the severed hand of the giant Druon Antigoon into the Scheldt — the legend that explains the name "Antwerp" (hand-werpen — "throwing hands" in Flemish legend)), and the guild houses (the narrow, gilded facade buildings of the craft guilds along the north and east sides of the square — the most photogenic ensemble in Antwerp).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideRubenshuis (Wapper 9–11 — the house, studio and palace that Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) designed and built for himself in 1611–1617: the combination of a Flemish-style house (the private residence with the kitchen, the dining room, the bedrooms) and an Italian Baroque palace (the studio wing, the garden portico in the Roman triumphal arch style, the garden with the pavilion). The 8 original Rubens paintings (including the Self-Portrait (c. 1628), the Adam and Eve in Paradise (c. 1600) and the Lute Player (c. 1609)) displayed in the rooms where Rubens himself hung them. The studio (the monumental room where Rubens and his assistants produced the massive workshop output of the Rubens factory — Rubens maintained a studio of 20+ assistants and himself painted only the key passages of each commissioned work).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideFrituur No. 1 (Hoogstraat 1, near the Grote Markt — the most celebrated frites stand in central Antwerp: the Flemish frite tradition (the Belgian frite, double-fried (blanched first at 160°C to cook through, then fried again at 180°C for the crust): the frites are traditionally served in a paper cone with a choice of 20+ sauces, of which the standard is the frietsaus (the Belgian mayo-based sauce, heavier and yellower than mayonnaise proper) and the stoofvlees saus (the sauce made from the Belgian beef stew (stoofvlees/carbonnade flamande — the Flemish beef braised in Belgian dark ale with thyme, bay leaf and a slice of pain d'épice (spiced bread) spread with mustard on top of the braise — the most characteristic Belgian dish)).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideHoveniersstraat and the Diamond Quarter (the 1km square around Antwerp Centraal Station that handles 80% of the world's rough diamond trade: 500 trading companies, 2,000 diamond cutters and polishers, and the four diamond bourses (the Beurs voor Diamanthandel, the Antwerpsche Diamantkring, the Vrije Diamanthandel and the Diamantclub van Antwerpen) where certified traders buy and sell parcels of rough and polished stones. The Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) visitor area and the Diamond Museum (the museum on Koningin Astridplein showing the history of diamond trading from the 15th century (Antwerp has been the world diamond trading center since 1447) and the process of diamond cutting and polishing — the Antwerp brilliant cut, developed in the 15th century, is the predecessor of the modern round brilliant cut used for most engagement rings today).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideMAS (Museum aan de Stroom — the Museum on the River: the 60m tower building (2011, architects Neutelings Riedijk) on the Eilandje (the Little Island) waterfront: the 10-floor tower with the permanent collection of Antwerp's port and world trade history (the largest collection of Antwerp port-related art and artifacts: the model ships, the navigational instruments, the cargo manifests from the 16th century peak, and the colonial-era collections from Belgium's Congo (the most controversial element of the collection, the subject of active decolonial curation since 2018)). The rooftop (free admission — 10 floors accessible by escalators outside the paid museum area): the panoramic 360° view over the Scheldt, the MAS Eilandje district (the most rapidly gentrifying area of Antwerp) and the port cranes of the largest port in the world.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideMoMu (ModeMuseum Provincie Antwerpen — Nationalestraat 28: the fashion museum of Antwerp, the city that launched the global careers of the Antwerp Six (the cohort of 1988 Royal Academy of Fine Arts fashion graduates — Dries Van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester, Dirk Bikkembergs, Walter Van Beirendonck, Dirk Van Saene and Marina Yee — who drove a rented truck to London Fashion Week in 1988 with no budget and no official invitation and showed their collections, launching a Belgian fashion revolution that permanently changed the aesthetics of global fashion): the rotating exhibitions of Belgian and international fashion and textile art, the permanent collection including archived Antwerp Six pieces, and the neighborhood (Nationalestraat — the fashion street of Antwerp with the Dries Van Noten boutique (the most beautiful fashion boutique in Antwerp, in the renovated Handelsbeurs building)).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideStoofvlees/Carbonnade Flamande (the Flemish beef stew — the most important Belgian dish after moules-frites: beef (the bavette or neck cut) braised for 4–6 hours in a Belgian dark ale (the Trappist ales — Westmalle, Chimay, Rochefort — or the Antwerp-specific De Koninck amber ale (the Bolleke — the specific Antwerp name for a glass of De Koninck ale)) with thyme, bay leaf, onion, and the traditional slice of pain d'épice spread with Dijon mustard laid on the surface of the braise as a thickener. Served with the Flemish frites. Pelgrom (Pelgrimstraat 15 — the most atmospheric restaurant in Antwerp, in a vaulted cellar that has been a tavern since the 16th century).
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideMuseum Plantin-Moretus (Vrijdagmarkt 22 — the UNESCO World Heritage Site and the most significant museum in Antwerp: the preserved printing house, home and garden of Christophe Plantin (the French-born publisher who established the most technologically advanced printing house in the world in Antwerp in 1555 — the Officina Plantiniana employed 22 presses simultaneously at its peak (more than any other printing house in Europe) and produced the Polyglot Bible (the Biblia Regia — the Bible in 4 languages (Latin, Greek, Aramaic, Hebrew) printed simultaneously in 1572, dedicated to Philip II of Spain, the most technologically complex printing project of the 16th century)). The museum contains the two oldest surviving printing presses in the world (both from Plantin's original workshop), the original type collection (100,000 pieces of type in 95 typefaces), the library (with the most important collection of 16th–17th century printed books in the world), and the original woodblocks and copper plates.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideZurenborg (the residential quarter in south-east Antwerp, between Antwerp Berchem station and the Cogels-Osylei: the most concentrated collection of Art Nouveau and Belle Époque mansion architecture in Belgium (and arguably in the world): the Cogels-Osylei street (1895–1906 — the street of detached villas and terraced mansions, each one built by a different architect for a different wealthy Antwerp bourgeois family, each one competing with its neighbors in the extravagance of the decorative program): Neo-Gothic, Baroque Revival, Louis XVI, Moorish Revival and pure Art Nouveau styles, often combined in a single facade. The Huize Zonnebloem (Sunflower House), the Witte Huis (White House) and the Dageraad (Dawn House) are the most elaborately decorated.
🎫 Book tickets via GetYourGuideKulminator (Vleminckveld 32 — the bar that is the most important Belgian beer destination in the world: Dirk Van Dyck and Leen Boudart have been collecting and ageing Belgian beers since 1979 (the bar opened 1974): the cellar contains vintage Belgian ales dating to 1977 (the vintage bottles — the Trappist ales, the Gueuze lambics, the Flemish red ales — aged in the Kulminator cellar are the most sought-after beer collectibles in the world among serious beer enthusiasts). The 700+ bottle list includes vintage Westvleteren 12 (the rarest and most sought-after Belgian beer: the Trappist ale brewed by the Saint Sixtus Abbey in Vleteren that is consistently rated the best beer in the world (RateBeer, BeerAdvocate) but can only be purchased directly from the Abbey by phone appointment), aged Cantillon Gueuze and vintages of Rodenbach Grand Cru.
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