De Twaalf Duivelkens

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 Hofman.

Its defining feature is an upper balcony held up by a row of 12 semi-comic devils whose demeanour suggests suffering based on toiletry needs rather than hellfire.


Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

Nearby Antwerp attractions

1. Sunflower House

0.08 MILES

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…

2. Waterloostraat

0.1 MILES

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…

3. De Vier Seizoenen

0.13 MILES

Four matching corner houses face off across a Zurenborg junction, with glaze-brick exteriors enlivened by fine mosaic work and triangular protruding box…

4. Les Mouettes

0.16 MILES

Though relatively modest by Zurenborg standards, Les Mouettes is a classic of art nouveau architecture with its curls of wrought-iron balcony detailing.

5. Graffiti Streets

0.24 MILES

Close to the art nouveau glories of Zurenborg, contrastingly forbidding Krugerstraat and Minckeleresstraat are so festooned in graffiti that they are…

6. Zeno X

0.65 MILES

This private, commercial space for contemporary art moved in 2012 to impressively large premises in a former milk-processing factory on an unlikely…

7. De Koninck

0.81 MILES

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…

8. Diamant

0.9 MILES

An astounding 80% of the world's uncut diamonds are traded in Antwerp. Four dour exchange buildings lie along heavily guarded Hoveniersstraat and…