Historic Cities · Belgium
Antwerp through the ages
Antwerp is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest municipality in Belgium by area at 208.22 km2 (80.39 sq mi).
Antwerp in 1560
Golden-age Antwerp
Antwerp in 1560 is the richest, busiest entrepôt in northern Europe, its Scheldt choked with Portuguese, Baltic and Mediterranean merchantmen and its markets loaded with sugar, cloth and spices. The walk follows the river into the old city, past the new Beurs, Plantin’s printing house and the single lace‑like tower of Our Lady's Cathedral towering over guild houses and workshops.
A compact river city of red brick and dark slate roofs, where one enormous lace‑like cathedral tower punctures a skyline otherwise low and tightly packed. Stone wharves and wooden jetties line the busy Scheldt; arcaded stone façades and stepped gables crowd the market squares, narrow crooked lanes and covered canals. Colours are sober — browns, brick reds, lead‑grey and occasional bright merchant banners — with smoke, salt air and sunlight along the quays.
The walk — 22 streets, squares and views
Scheldt Approach → Het Steen → Steenplein → Suikerrui → The Wapper Quay → De Ruien → Oude Koornmarkt → Vrijdagmarkt → Plantin's House → Meir → …
Step inside — 13 interiors
Sugar Kettle House · Portuguese Warehouse · Painter's Workshop · Printing Press Room · Merchant Counting House · Glovemakers' Workshop · Vleeshuis Great Hall · Banqueting Hall · Merchants' Chamber · Exchange Arcade · Cathedral Nave · English Merchants' Hall · Abbey Refectory
Planned from the Wikipedia record: Antwerp.
Antwerp in 1910
Red Star Line Antwerp
This is Antwerp at the height of its transatlantic and industrial moment: steamliners of the Red Star Line load emigrants at the Rijnkaai while diamond workshops hum behind the Pelikaanstraat. The walk moves from the Scheldt quays past the old Steen and the Stock Exchange, through the diamond quarter and the new Centraal Station to the ornate Art Nouveau avenues of Zurenborg.
Antwerp in 1910 is a riverside industrial city of red-brick warehouses, limewashed façades, and ecclesiastical spires puncturing a low skyline. Steamships and their black funnels line the Scheldt, the new Centraal Station’s stone dome and iron train-shed dominate the near horizon, and cobbled streets narrow into alleys behind the quays. Art Nouveau villas in Zurenborg introduce painted stucco and wrought-iron detail, while diamond cutters’ workshop windows show the pale, northern light prized for lapidary work.
The walk — 22 streets, squares and views
Approach from the Scheldt → Rijnkaai (Emigrant Quay) → Quayside Inspection Lines → Het Steen (Old Castle) → Steenplein and Riverside → Suikerrui (Sugar Quay) → Vlaeykensgang (Medieval Alley) → Grote Markt (Town Square) → Beurs (Stock Exchange) → Meir (Principal Shopping Street) → …
Step inside — 13 interiors
Red Star Line Booking Office · Emigrant Inspection Hall · Castle Gate Hall · Dockside Coaster Café · Town Hall Council Chamber · Commodities Exchange Floor · Grand Drapery Salon · Diamond Cutter's Bench · Master Lapidary Workshop · Finished Stone Sorting Room · Harbour Warehouse Sorting Room · Marble Booking Hall · Art Nouveau Drawing Room
Planned from the Wikipedia record: Antwerp.
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