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ModeNatie
Antwerp's mode museum, MoMu is located in the much-celebrated ModeNatie complex, home also to both the Flanders Fashion Institute and the fashion department of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
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Museum aan de Stroom
Due to open in 2008, the purpose-built multistorey Museum aan de Stroom is located between two docks - Bonapartedok and Willemdok - in the flourishing 't Eilandje district. Architecturally it's expected to be a big draw, designed like a modern spiral tower with a panorama platform offering city views. It will bring together exhibits of the city's history from its earliest beginnings to recent times. Some existing museums, like the Scheepvaartmuseum, will lose all or some of their content.
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Museum Mayer Van den Bergh
Museum Mayer Van den Bergh occupies a simulated 16th-century townhouse, built in 1904 by the mother of Fritz Mayer Van den Bergh, a prosperous art connoisseur who had died a few years earlier aged 41. His highly prized collection of sculptures and paintings, including works by Quinten Matsijs and Cornelius De Vos, form the core of the museum.
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Museum Plantin-Moretus
The World Heritage-listed Museum Plantin-Moretus is home to the world's first industrial printing works. This fascinating museum deals with a prosperous 16th- and 17th-century printing family headed by Christoffel Plantin. Plantin moved from France to Antwerp where he set up as a bookbinder in 1548. Eight years later he started a printing business that eventually became the Low Countries' largest printing and publishing concern and a magnet for intellectuals, scientists and humanists.
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Museum Van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen
The Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst Van Antwerpen is housed behind an Art Deco façade in a building that started life as a grain silo. It contains a permanent collection of Belgian and international art dating from the 1970s onwards, although only a fraction is displayed at any one time. Temporary exhibitions are often staged. Bus 23 (direction Zuid) from Franklin Rooseveltplaats stops nearby.
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Museum Vleeshuis/Klank van de Stad
Due east of the Steen is the striking Vleeshuis, or Museum Vleeshuis/Klank van de Stad. This building, with its red-and-white layered stonework, was the 14th-century headquarters of the butchers' guild. It's now a new music museum, known as Klank van de Stad, home to instruments specifically related to Antwerp. Time a visit with a concert given on one of the old instruments - the tourist office has the schedule.
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Nationaal Scheepvaartmuseum Steen
This engaging museum houses model ships, maritime maps and instruments in the gatehouse and front section (which is all that remains) of the 13th-century castle, Steen. Highlights include an intriguing nautical totem shaped like a snake's head and boats from around the world, including an 18th-century coracle or skin boat. Beneath the next-door raised promenade is the museum's open-air collection of river barges, canal boats and De Schelde P905, a 1950's Belgian navy patrol ship.
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Onze Lieve Vrouwekathedraal
The splendid Onze Lieve Vrouwekathedraal is the largest and finest Gothic cathedral in Belgium. It was 169 years in the making (1352-521) and the work of several architects (Appelmans, Domien and Keldermans). Its graceful 123m-high spire was a mighty landmark in early times and is still visible from kilometres around today.
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Openluchtmuseum voor Beeldhouwkunst Middelheim
Some 4km south of the city centre is a large, landscaped park known as the Openluchtmuseum voor Beeldhouwkunst Middelheim. It contains more than 300 works by sculptors, including notable nationals (Rik Wouters) and influential internationals (Auguste Rodin and Henry Moore).
Read more about Openluchtmuseum voor Beeldhouwkunst Middelheim
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Quinten Matsys
An exquisite Art Nouveau example along Cogels-Osylei is the Quinten Matsys built in 1904.
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Red Star Line Museum
A museum in the pipeline for the 't Eilandje district is the Red Star Line Museum. It will tell the story of the three-million Europeans who immigrated via Antwerp to the US and Canada. Ask the tourist office for up-to-date details on both museums.
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Red-Light District
Antwerp's Red-Light District is Belgium's largest, but it's small fry compared with neighbouring Amsterdam. It is based between St Paulusplaats and Verversrui and includes the appropriately named Oude Manstraat (Old Man St). Much of the quarter has a dog-eared feel, and the fanfare and crass consumerism that makes its counterpart in the Netherlands so famous is noticeably absent here.
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Rockoxhuis
The Rockoxhuis is a 17th-century mansion that once belonged to Nicolaas Rockox, a former city mayor and friend and patron of Rubens. It's built around a central courtyard, is furnished in classical Flemish style, and holds a small but esteemed collection of paintings, including works by Rubens, Jordaens, Van Dyck and Pieter Breughel the Younger.
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Rubenshuis
Rubenshuis, the prestigious home and studio of the city's most celebrated painter, Pieter Paul Rubens, it was little more than a ruin when acquired by the city in 1937. Superbly restored along original lines, it's now Antwerp's chief attraction, despite the fact that only a handful of Rubens' lesser works are exhibited here. Rubens built this beautiful Flemish baroque mansion in 1611 when he was 34 years old; he died here 29 years later.
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St Carolus-Borromeuskerk
This stunning Flemish baroque church was built in 1621 by the Jesuits on one of the city's most beautiful public squares. Much of the church, including the façade and tower, was designed by Rubens. Unfortunately, most of the marble interior and 39 ceiling paintings by Rubens and his colleagues were destroyed by fire in 1718. However, baroque art at its prime can be seen in the small Onze Lieve Vrouwekapel (Chapel of Our Lady), inside to the right of the entrance, which was spared by the flames.
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St Jacobskerk
The tomb of Rubens and his family is the reason most visitors come to St Jacobskerk. Located in a small chapel behind the high altar, the tomb is adorned with a painting, Our Lady Surrounded by Saints, which Rubens executed specifically for his tomb and which is actually a family portrait, with the master as St George and his wives and father the other figures. The church was the place of worship for the aristocracy and is a showcase of their wealth.
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St Pauluskerk
Marking the start of the sailors' quarter, or 't Schipperskwartier, is St Pauluskerk. The proud, white Gothic church (1517) was built for the Dominicans. It suffered over the years due to fires, the latest in 1968 when locals rallied to save the art treasures inside. The baroque interior is resplendent with a stunning procession of wooden confessionals and carvings, altars, a (partly) ancient organ and marble embellishments, as well as paintings by the 17th-century masters and lesser artists.
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Stadhuis
Life in Antwerp radiates out from the Grote Markt, a vast, triangular market square and it's presided over by the impressive Renaissance-style Stadhuis. Designed by Cornelius Floris De Vriendt and completed in 1565, the stadhuis' palatial façade is a blend of Flemish and Italian styles, an innovative departure from the standard Gothic architecture prevalent at the time of construction. The commanding gable is topped by a fine gilded eagle and flanked by statues representing wisdom and justice.
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Stadspark Playground
The Stadspark Playground at the northern corner of Stadspark is good for littlies.
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Twaalf Duivels
The Twaalf Duivels , built in 1896 by Jules Hofman, has a timber façade that gives way to 12 wooden devils that leer at passers-by.
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Witte Paleizen
The area's focal point is the small roundabout on Cogels-Osylei, which is flanked by the Witte Paleizen, grand façades resembling chateaux in France's Loire Valley.
