Antwerp
The medieval building and 1622 courtyard garden alone would be worth a visit, but it's the world's oldest printing press, priceless manuscripts and…
Must-see attractions in Antwerp
Antwerp
This delightfully indulgent 1611 mansion was built as a home and studio for celebrated painter Pieter Paul Rubens. It was rescued from ruins in 1937 and…
Antwerp
Belgium’s finest Gothic cathedral was 169 years in the making (1352–1521). Wherever you wander in Antwerp, its gracious, 123m-high spire has a habit of…
Antwerp
Styled as a 16th-century town house, this superb place was actually constructed in 1904 as one of the first museums in the world built around a single…
Antwerp
Combining the impressive 17th-century houses of artist Frans Snijders and of Antwerp lawyer, mayor and Rubens-patron Nicolaas Rockox, this recently…
Antwerp
As is the case with every great Flemish city, Antwerp’s medieval heart is a classic Grote Markt (market square). Here the triangular, pedestrianised space…
Antwerp
In a monumental neoclassical building topped with winged charioteer statues, KMSKA holds a world-class collection of artistic masterpieces. However, the…
Antwerp
Opened in 2011, MAS is a 10-storey complex that redefines the idea of a museum-gallery. Floors are designed around big-idea themes using a barrage of…
Antwerp
Over two million passengers sailed from Antwerp on Red Star Line ships between 1873 and 1934, the great majority of them immigrants bound for America…
Antwerp
Antwerp’s historic brewery is both a temple to the city’s favourite beer and an evocative example of early-20th-century industrial architecture. Self…
Antwerp
On a riverside knoll, Het Steen is a dinky but photogenic castle dating from 1200 and occupying the site of Antwerp’s original Gallo-Roman settlement…
Antwerp
M HKA is considered to be one of Belgium's best contemporary galleries. Its exhibitions focus on work produced since the 1970s by both Belgian and…
Antwerp
With its neo-Gothic facade, vast main hall and splendidly proportioned dome, the 1905 Antwerpen-Centraal building has been rated as one of the five most…
Antwerp
Closed for renovation until late 2020, Antwerp's fashion museum has a rich avant-garde collection and typically produces exhibitions highlighting the…
Antwerp
Four matching corner houses face off across a Zurenborg junction, with glaze-brick exteriors enlivened by fine mosaic work and triangular protruding box…
Antwerp
Presiding over the vast Grote Markt, the 1565 stadhuis has a palatial facade blending Flemish and Italian styles in an innovative departure from the…
Antwerp
The tomb of Rubens is the reason most visitors come to St-Jacobskerk. Located in a small chapel behind the high altar, the tomb is adorned with Our Lady…
Antwerp
Rubens turned interior designer as part of the team that created this superb 1621 baroque church, designed to give worshippers a very visceral foretaste…
Antwerp
An astounding 80% of the world's uncut diamonds are traded in Antwerp. Four dour exchange buildings lie along heavily guarded Hoveniersstraat and…
Antwerp
Founded in 1843, Antwerp Zoo is one of the world’s oldest and best-respected zoological parks. Enclosures in the 10-hectare site are state of the art and…
Antwerp
Close to the art nouveau glories of Zurenborg, contrastingly forbidding Krugerstraat and Minckeleresstraat are so festooned in graffiti that they are…
Antwerp
Beautiful it ain’t. But its sheer jaw-dropping scale makes driving through the world's fourth-largest port complex an unforgettable experience.
Antwerp
Help U Zelve has arguably the city's most beautiful and harmonious art nouveau facade. Built in 1901 by architects Van Asperen and Van Averbeke as the…
Antwerp
Part of a 1901 town house called De Vijf Continenten (The Five Continents), ’t Bootje has a fabulous wrought-iron lamp but is named for its little ship…
Antwerp
Strangely easy to miss despite its towering bulk, this church was consecrated in 1571 as part of a Dominican monastery, and thoroughly rebuilt after a…
Antwerp
The architectural delight of the Zurenborg suburb goes well beyond art nouveau, as you'll see at this humorous 1900 chalet-style house designed by Jules…
Antwerp
This excellent museum of photography has a regularly changing roster of exhibitions from historical themes to no-holds-barred work by contemporary photo…
Antwerp
This exquisite private house has a white facade picked out with small black iron swirls and two gilded sunflowers. It's the most striking of several side…
Antwerp
The beautiful building that served as Antwerp's stock exchange from 1531 to 1997 fell into severe disrepair over two decades, but since 2016 has been…
Antwerp
This picturesque passage dates to 1591 and was originally a street of shoemakers.
Antwerp
If walking between Antwerpen-Centraal station and the town centre, do peep inside this exuberant shopping mall within a 1908 neoclassical exhibition hall…
Antwerp
Original escalators and 1930s tilework add interest to this 572m-long pedestrian and bicycle tunnel that cuts beneath the Scheldt River. You emerge at the…
Antwerp
Standing in the middle of the road, the great painter is dressed in britches and hose, holding a floppy plumed hat and gazing into space, apparently…
Antwerp
Piled with symbols in a refreshing fountain spray, this baroque sculpture's uppermost figure depicts Brabo, hero of Antwerp’s giant-killing, hand-throwing…
Antwerp
If you're strolling Zurenborg looking for art nouveau gems, don't miss house numbers 11 and 30 on this street, which have mosaic work commemorating the…
Antwerp
This private, commercial space for contemporary art moved in 2012 to impressively large premises in a former milk-processing factory on an unlikely…
Antwerp
A raised southern promenade links Het Steen to St-Jansvliet, a tree-shaded square where a lift descends to the Sint-Annatunnel.
Antwerp
This attractive historic building was an orphanage and child refuge from 1553 to 1882 and houses some fascinating objects from this time, along with a…
Antwerp
Designed by Richard Rogers, famous for the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Antwerp’s 21st-century law courts have a distinctive series of gleaming titanium …