While the area around Antwerp has been inhabited since Neolithic times, the place entered history with the arrival of Julius Caesar and his legions in 57 BC. When Rome fell some four hundred years later, the area was overrun by Frankish barbarians. The Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne established a fort at the site of the future city in about the year 800 AD, while Christian missionaries arrived to convert the local people.

Unlike other cities in what became the Duchy of Flanders in 1093, Antwerp didn’t really get started as a going concern until the establishment of guildhalls in the early 16th Century. As with older, richer cities like Burges and Ghent, Antwerp started making money hand over fist with the production and export of cloth. It soon superceded those towns when it was favored by the Hapsburg Emperor, Charles V, and became a major northern European port.

After 1566, Antwerp suffered during the revolt against Spanish Hapsburg rule. Its protestant population, decimated by massacres by Spanish troops, was forced to immigrate north to Holland. Antwerp began a decline soon after with Amsterdam superseding it as the main port of the Low Countries. It passed from Spanish to Austrian to French to Dutch rule throughout the ensuing centuries until becoming the main port of an independent Belgium in 1831. Subsequently, Antwerp grew, especially with the establishment of rail lines with the Belgium capital of Brussels.

Grote Markt

This market square, reserved for pedestrians and bordered by some marvelous Renaissance-style buildings, is the social heart of Antwerp. Two sides of the square are dominated by the facades of some mostly 19th-century towering guildhalls. The house number 7, for instance, is one of the most beautiful. It was the house of the guild of Archers and is crowned by the statue of St. George. In the middle of the square stands the Brabo fountain, with a statue of a legendary Roman soldier Silvius Brabo. The statue was made by sculptor Jef Lambeaux in 1887. According to a legend, a terrible giant, called Druoon Antigoon, lived on the banks of the river Scheldt in ancient times. Whenever sailors on the Scheldt River refused to pay toll to the giant, he punished them by cutting off their hand. Brabo managed to kill the giant. Brabo cut off the hand of the giant and threw the hand away in the river.

Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten

The Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten or Royal Museum of Fine Arts has an awesome collection of paintings, dating from the 14th century right up to contemporary times. The collection includes masterworks from the 15th-century Flemish likes of Jan Van Eyck and Rogier Van der Weyden, from 17th-century exponents of baroque like Rubens and Antoon Van Dyck, and from more recent creative types like James Ensor, Constant Permeke and surrealist René Magritte. The collection numbers more than 7,200 works of art, consisting of 3,200 painting, 3,600 drawings and prints, and 400 sculptures.

The earliest nucleus of the museum has its origin with the Antwerp Guild of St Luke to which the city's artists belonged between 1382 and 1773. In 1663 an academy was founded under the guild's auspices. In 1773, the Academy of Fine Arts took possession of the guild's gallery. The rather limited composition of the Academy's museum started to grow in the 19th century through generous donations. The gallery passed into the ownership of the state in 1927.

Museum Plantin-Moretus

The Museum Plantin-Moretus details the printing dynasty founded by Christoffel Plantin in 1548. One of the prime exhibits is a rare, painstakingly assembled Gutenberg Bible. Christophe Plantin, considered the greatest of the early printers after Gutenburg, established himself in 1548 in Antwerp, organized his printing atelier and library in this house in 1576. He printed 1860 books in “all the languages of the Christian world” and the prestige of the house became so great that king Philippe II of Spain promoted him to his official printer. Moretus, his son in law, continued his work, still imitated by his successors until1876. The interior has been very well remade as in the time of Plantin. The house includes sumptuous apartments, hand presses, cases full of lead characters, printing material, a fabulous private library and print cabinet.

Nationaal Scheepvaartmuseum

Nationaal Scheepvaartmuseum or National Maritime Museum is on the foreshore of the River Scheldt to the immediate west of the old city center. It lays within the partly-restored confines of a castle called the Steen that dates from 1200 and is Antwerp's oldest building. The museum contains a collection of charts, models, paintings, and actual representations of canal boats, fishing boats, and other sailing craft that have shaped Belgium history.

Onze Lieve Vrouwkathedraal

The Onze Lieve Vrouwkathedraal or the Cathedral of Our Lady is the biggest and best Gothic church in Belgium and one of the highpoints of Antwerp with its 493 foot spire. It took nearly 170 years to bring this landmark construction project to completion in 1521.t has subsequently been graced by four canvases daubed by the baroque master Rubens. Those include The Raising of the Cross (1610), Resurrection (1612) and Assumption (1625)m all excellent examples of this artist's early work. But the best-known painting is the enigmatic triptych The Descent from the Cross (1612).

Openluchtmuseum voor Beeldhouwkunst Middelheim

The Openluchtmuseum voor Beeldhouwkunst Middelheim is an open air sculpture garden containing three hundred sculptures decorously scattered throughout the large park. They include works by such artists as Rik Wouters and Auguste Rodin.

Rubenshuis

This is the former home and studio of the famed Belgian artist, Peter Paul Rubens. He built this baroque mansion in 1611 and lived in it until his death in 1640 at the age of 63. There have been some judicious restorations to the artist's living quarters, the studio where he produced many acclaimed artworks, and to the formal garden in the mansion's grounds. The collection of paintings by Rubens himself and by some of his contemporaries alone already makes it worth the entrance fee. During a visit one can stroll through the reconstructed garden, visit the work shop of Rubens and his private quarters.

St Jacobskerk

Antwerp's wealthy built this church as their private place of worship. There are 23 burial chapels and assorted other rooms constructed from over 100 types of marble and decorated with the work of famous artists of the time. Rubens himself is buried here alongside his family, in a small chapel adorned with a whimsical family portrait entitled Our Lady Surrounded by Saints. In a way the church is a defiance to both the principles that all are equal to God and that you can’t take it with you.

Visiting Antwerp

Antwerp’s small airport handles only a few international flights, mainly from London. The city is, however, readily accessible by bus and train. To improve the probability of decent weather, visit Antwerp between May and September.