Medieval townhouses in Antwerp’s Grote Markt
Funky Antwerp is blessed with glorious medieval architecture, splendid cathedrals, fine shopping and a tasty Flemish gastronomic tradition. This wealthy, vibrant city also offers intriguing museums; here is my choice of the five best museums in Antwerp.
Rubenshuis
First among equals is the Rubenshuis, where Antwerp’s best-known artist son lived is some splendor. Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) amassed a vast fortune from his light-caressed paintings, and by the tender age of 33 he was ensconced in a mansion in the center of the city. Comprising one fabulously decorated room after another, all restored to their original wildly ornate state and furnished with priceless antiques and marble sculptures, the palace is decorated with Rubens’s exquisite portraits, including one of Anthony van Dyck, who was his pupil. His vast studio – where he produced the masterpiece Samson and Delilah in around 1610 – is also open for inspection. Out the back is a Renaissance courtyard garden as befitting a wealthy Flemish gentleman living in wealthy Antwerp in the 17th century.
Museum aan de Stroom
MAS is located on Antwerp’s Willemdok harbor, which was built for Napoleon and is now a blossoming area with a marina and a scattering of bars and restaurants. Antwerp’s latest cultural landmark resembles a block of Lego bricks clamped together with glass and opened in May 2011; the five themed floors of interactive artworks, photos, video and newsreel – all in all half a million artifacts – show how the city owes its wealth to trade on the River Schelde, its immigrants and its diamond industry. There are views across Antwerp from the ninth-floor roof and the Michelin-starred Restaurant ‘Zilte – this is the shape of museums of the future.
Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen
Antwerp’s Royal Museum of Fine Arts contains the world’s biggest collection of paintings by local boy Rubens as well as works by the Flemish Primitives Rogier van der Weyden, Jan van Eyck, Hans Memling and Pieter Brueghel. Alas this sublime gallery, with its glorious Neo-classical façade, is closed for restoration until 2017 but some of the work has been redistributed around the city’s other galleries – the website has more details.
Museum Plantin-Moretus
The UNESCO-listed 16th-century mansion of Christoffle Plantin, designer of one of the world’s most popular printing fonts, is now a museum showcasing printing presses dating right back to the 16th century. Plantin established a workshop in his stately residence in 1555; today it is laid out as if the printers had just downed tools. Rubens illustrated several of the books published by the workshop and painted some of the portraits displayed there, but pride of place among the exhibits goes to the rare Gutenberg Bible dating from 1455.
Museum Vleeshuis
The Butcher’s Hall Museum stands out among the handsome guild houses around the Grote Markt, the most handsome square in Antwerp. A gabled Gothic structure with a tower at each corner and designed with stripes of white and red brick. The barnlike interior showcases the “Sounds of the City” exhibition, with fine harpsichords and Delftware mandolins on display along with period costumes and historic paintings.
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