Antwerp was Europe's richest city in 1560, then lost everything when the Spanish sacked it in 1576 and closed the Scheldt in 1585. Three days trace that arc: medieval guilds, printing presses, diamond money and wartime rubble.
Antwerp's oldest surviving building, a stone fortress on the Scheldt begun around 1200 on Gallo-Roman foundations. Charles V rebuilt it in 1520; it served as a prison until 1823. Now houses The Antwerp Story visitor centre, open 10:00–18:00, closed Mondays.
The 1504 guild hall of the butchers' corporation, built in banded red brick and white sandstone nicknamed 'bacon layers'. Guild members alone could sell meat inside Antwerp's walls. Now a museum of historical instruments and city sound.
The world's first purpose-built commercial exchange, opened 1531, model for London's Royal Exchange. Burned twice; the current neo-Gothic hall dates from 1872 and reopened in 2019 after decades sealed shut. Merchants traded pepper, alum and bills of exchange here.
A Dominican church begun in 1517, Gothic outside with a Baroque interior of 50 life-size 17th-century statues. The adjoining Calvarieberg, a rockery of grottoes, skeletons and purgatory figures built 1697–1747, is unique in Europe. Open 14:00–17:00 April–October.
UNESCO World Heritage since 2005, the only preserved 16th-century printing workshop on earth. Christophe Plantin printed the Biblia Polyglotta here from 1568; two of the world's oldest surviving printing presses (c.1600) still stand in the press room.
Antwerp's Jewish community settled here from the 1880s; some 25,000 Belgian Jews were deported via Mechelen, most never returned. The Portuguese Synagogue on Hoveniersstraat and the Hasidic diamond trade survive as living continuity.
Set in the original 1894 shipping-line sheds where 2 million emigrants were medically screened before sailing to New York, 1873–1934. Irving Berlin and Albert Einstein passed through. Open 10:00–17:00, closed Mondays.
On 16 December 1944 a German V-2 rocket struck the packed Rex cinema, killing 567 people — the deadliest single V-weapon strike of the war. Antwerp absorbed over 1,700 V-bombs as the Allies' vital supply port.
A 1906 fortress the SS ran as Auffanglager Breendonk from 1940; of roughly 3,600 prisoners held here, over half died. Torture chamber, barracks and execution ground are preserved untouched. Open 09:30–17:30 daily.
A walled lay-sisters' community founded in 1240 and rebuilt in 1544 after Spanish troops razed the original. The last beguine died in 1986. Whitewashed cottages around a herb garden, open daily 09:00–17:00, silence requested.
The 1933 pedestrian tunnel under the Scheldt still runs its original wooden escalators, 572 metres at 31 metres' depth. Above it, the Zuid district stands on the demolished Spanish citadel of 1567 built by the Duke of Alba to crush the city.
Built 1895–1905 under Leopold II with Congo revenues, a stone cathedral of railways with a 75-metre dome and 44-metre iron train shed. Restored 1998–2009 with four track levels stacked underground.