A Day in Antwerp

Saturday, October 18, 2014

Belgium's second-largest city (at about 500,000 people) was the destination of our day trip, about an hour from Bruges.  We parked along the Scheldt River, the scene of a busy trading port in Antwerp's heyday.  After Bruges' harbor silted up in the 15th century, Antwerp stepped in to fill the gap, and once trade with the New World began, the arrival of goods made Antwerp Europe's wealthiest city for a time.  War and politics changed that, and the power and wealth eventually shifted to Amsterdam. 

On this Saturday, the port is quiet, but the city center is hopping.

We began in Antwerp's large central square, the Grote Markt.  Saturday is wedding day and couples and their families were coming and going from the City Hall on the square.  There was also a gathering of the family and friends of a young man who disappeared one year ago. Their white balloons and t-shirts bearing his photo, the leaflets they distributed, as well as the presence of a number of television camera, bore witness to the ongoing search for the lost man.

Elsewhere on the square, people milled around the central fountain or lounged in the cafes that occupy the ground floors of the old guild halls, topped with gilded statues, that ring the square.  The substantial guild halls bear witness to the historical power and prosperity of the merchant and trading classes in Antwerp.

Also on the square is the city's Cathedral of Our Lady, an active church and currently a bit of an art museum, as it is housing some pieces of one of the city museum's collection while the museum is undergoing renovation.  The cathedral is a soaring Gothic affair and, historically, each of the city's guilds had an altar at the foot of a pillar in the nave and or one of the six(!) aisles.  The original altarpieces were  by the guild and the chosen artists generally worked symbols of the sponsoring trade or craft into their paintings' Biblical scenes; the paintings are now displayed in their original home.  The artistic masterpieces of the cathedral are three massive altarpieces by Peter Paul Rubens, the city's most famous son.

Leaving the cathedral, we walked through the old center of the city to the pedestrian Meir, a busy shopping area.  It was full of life on this beautiful Saturday,with cyclists, shoppers, strollers, and street musicians out in force.  Antwerp is also home to Europe's first skyscraper, the KBC Tower, built in 1932, at the foot of the Meir.

After a walk on the elevated promenade along the river, we headed out of  Antwerp and back to toward Bruges.  We took a slight detour to visit the small town of Damme, about five miles away from Bruges; the canal-side road  the two towns is a popular bicycle route.  (Then again, bicyclists are everywhere in this flat part of the world.)  Damme is about four blocks long and two blocks deep, with an impressive city hall, a large church, and lots of restaurants.  The view down the canal ends with Bruges' Church of Our Lady in the distance.

 

After dinner at home, we went out for a walk and some photography on a warm and beautiful Bruges night.