Tour & Travel Packages to Antwerpen

Grote Markt. Grote Markt is three-cornered square, which is considered to be the centre of Antwerp. In good weather terraces of cafes at the square are always full. Grote Markt is surrounded by The Cathedral of Our Lady and City Hall. The City Hall was built in 1561-1564 in Renascence style with evident Flemish and Italian effect. The top part of the front is built in pure Flemish style, when niches and pilasters are the result of Italian influence. Special attention should be devoted to the interior of the City Hall. Inside you'll see fabulous halls with huge frescos, for example, the Hall of Weddings, the walls of which are decorated with paintings about wedding ceremonies of different times.

The Guilds houses. Have a look at the Guilds houses at the north side of the square. Unfortunately, they are not originals. Most of the houses burnt down in 1576 in then was reconstructed. The biggest house is the Spanish House (Pand van Spanje) it's under number 7, St. Joris and the Dragon are pictured on it. St. Joris is almost killing the Dragon that hardly managed to catch hold of the front. It creates the illusion that the Dragon may fall down at any moment.

The fountain at the square is decorated with the image of Romanian soldier Salvius Barbo. It's connected with the legend about the origin of name Antwerp. Once upon a time at the bank of the Scheldt Giant Druon Antigon lived. He demanded from sailors floating across the Scheldt an excessive due. Those, who couldn't or didn't want to pay, had their hand cut off by the giant. Salvius Barbo called him down, overpowered him and, as the symbol of victory, cut off his hand and threw it into the river, like Druon Antigon did with other sailors. So, as the legend says, name Antwerp goes from ‘handwerpen' – 'to throw a hand'. Scientists suppose that the name goes from the word ‘de aanwerp' – 'sandbank'.

Antwerp museums. Antwerp is a real paradise for museum-lovers. In The Royal Museum of Fine Arts one can see not only thousands of works of old school masters (among which there are, for example, Flemish primitives), but also at about 1500 works of modern authors. By the way, it is the place, where the biggest and the most beautiful collection of Rubens is kept. In The Museum of Modern Art (Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen – MUHKA) mainly the works of Belgian artists of the 60s are exhibited.

The National Maritime Museum is situated in the oldest building of Antwerp - het Steen. Amazing ship models and the section with real ship in the open air make this museum one of the most interesting places in the city.

Read more about Antwerpen in our City Guide ...

Antwerp Airport, Belgium, Luchthavenlei z/n, B-2100 Antwerp, BELGIUM
Tel: +32 (0)3 285.65.00
Fax: +32 (0)3 285.65.01
Email: antwerpairport@vlaanderen.be