Antwerp is a medieval city, full of interesting, historic buildings. Today’s blog will be about the centre’s squares, streets and buildings. For more information, see https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lijst_van_onroerend_erfgoed_in_Antwerpen/Historisch_Centrum/Hoogstraat – only in Dutch. The seventh column (‘Nummer’) offers the opportunity to view photographs of Antwerp’s distinguished buildings.

Grote Markt (Central Square) – north side. Facades of guild houses.

Tempelstraat (Temple-street) – too short to be reproduced on our city-map.

Jan Blomstraat. We were unable to determine who Jan Blom was or what he did for that matter. There’s the prominent presence of a national Belgian symbol, being Tintin (Kuifje in Dutch – a “kuifje” is a tuft) and his faithful dog Milou (Dutch: Bobby, English; Snowy).

Oude Koornmarkt (Old Cornmarket). A lot of interesting buildings are visible when using the link that’s given with the first picture.

This is the, or an, entrance of the restaurant named “Estro Armonico” within the Vlaeykensgang. See http://newsites.resto.com/estroarmonico/?langue=en.

When recording the Vlaeykensgang we forgot to look up when passing this stunning narrow building. The fault is fixed by publishing this picture.

The real reason to publish this one simply is the beauty of this little piece of Antwerp.

On our way towards the river Schelde (Scheldt) to make an overview-shot, we passed the Kaasstraat (Cheese-street). Not only where we impressed by its facades, the statue of this woman again proves how lucky the male half of humanity is!

The Suikerrui (Sugar-sewer) with the cathedral in the background, as seen from an elevation next to the river Schelde. The building in the foreground on the left hand side is called “Hansa Huis”. We’ve no idea whether this building has to do with the Hanseatic League, to be honest. Antwerp has been a “Kontor”. The “Kontore” were foreign trading posts of the League, not cities that were Hanseatic members. More statues are visible like the one shown with the picture before this one.

The Papenstraatje (Papists-street), an intimate little street with a pretty background.

Here’s the Boerentoren (“Farmers-tower”) a (nick)name deriving from the involvement of the Belgische Boerenbond (Belgian Farmers-union), controlling the building owner, the latter being the Algeme(e)ne Bankvereniging (General Bank-society). When completed, in 1931, the Art Deco-building was considered Europe’s first sky-scraper – height 87,5 meters (290 feet). The tower became in 1981, by Royal Decree, a protected monument. It’s nowadays owned by KBC Bank and subsequently named now KBC Tower. For more see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boerentoren (English) or better even https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boerentoren (Dutch).

Antwerp’s prestigious shopping street, named Meir. We’re told that the Meir is the busiest shopping street of Belgium. Whether true or not, the Meir and its surroundings are a genuine paradise for the dedicated shopper.

A side-road, rather a side-square, of the Meir is called Wapper. Here’s what the Wapper looks like. We have been unable to find out what the name means. The most interesting building is the house where Peter Paul Rubens lived. More about him, and the house, on a later occasion.

Especially big port-cities have a red light district (RLD). Antwerp is no exception – and, according to an Internet-site we consulted, the fourth famous RLD after Amsterdam, Hamburg and Paris. We have no opinion about this being positive or negative. Antwerp’s RLD is situated very close to the Willemdok, our marina during the 2015/16 winter. This picture was “borrowed” from the Internet, as we did not want to risk a dispute with a, errr…. “protector”. Bye for now.