Page 128 - (DK Eyewitness) Top 10 Travel Guide - Brussels Bruges Ghent & Antwerp

126  BEY OND BRUSSELS

A 90-Minute Walk Across Antwerp

Antwerp handles 80 per cent of the world’s entire trade
in rough diamonds. This walk starts at an architectural
jewel in the otherwise rather unglamorous diamond district,
the impressive Centraal railway station, and heads west to
the Meir, Antwerp’s main shopping thoroughfare, before
visiting the haunts of Rubens and his contemporaries at
the Rubenshuis, Sint Jacobskerk and the Rockoxhuis. It then
passes through medieval Antwerp to reach the broad
sweep of the River Scheldt.

Diamond District and Rubenshuis and Rockoxhuis
the Meir Turn left off the Meir into the 2 The bar area in the impressive Radisson
Centraal Station 1 is a palatial broad street called the Wapper Blu Astrid Hotel
Neo-Classical building com- 7. On the left-hand
pleted in 1905 that is worth side of the street is
visiting in its own right. It looks the Rubenshuis
out over Koningin Astridplein, (see pp124– JORDAENSKAAI L. KOEPOORTSTR. KEIZERSTRAAT
named after the hugely popular 5) 8, w
Queen Astrid (wife of Leopold III o
GROTE
and grandmother of the present HAARSTRAAT MARKT u t e r
King Philippe I) who died i KIPDORP ST JACOBS
tragically in a car accident, aged S c he l d t E.VAN DIJCKKAAI y MARKT
29, in 1935. Behind the station, VLASMARKT Groenplaats LANGE NIEUWE STR. q
Antwerp Zoo 2 is one of the ZAND p MARKT GROEN- ST KATELIJNEVEST LANGE NIEUWSTRAAT
FRANKLIN
oldest in the world, and its d STOOFSTR. a PLAATS EIERMARKT ROOSEVELT GEMEENTESTR. 2
impressive entrance dates from LANGE KLARENSTRAAT EIKENSTRAAT JEZUSSTRAAT PLAATS Astrid
OUDE KOORN-
1843, the year the zoo opened. s 0 Meir
On the far side of the square is OEVER STEENHOUWERSVEST WIEGSTR. MEIR MEIR 6 LEYSSTRAAT Opera ANNEESSENSSTR. KONINGIN
VRIJDAG
MARKT
the Radisson Blu LOMBARDENVEST 7 STATIESTRAAT ASTRIDPLEIN
Astrid Hotel 3, a HUIDEVETTERSSTR. 8 DE KEYSERLEI 3
bold example of AUGUSTIJNENSTRAAT KAMMENSTRAAT K.GASTHUISSTRAAT JODENSTRAAT WAPPER
post-modern FRANKRIJKLEI QUELLINSTRAAT VESTINGSTRAAT 1
architecture. For a the impressive KOMEDIE 9 HOPLAND 5 Diamant
flavour of Antwerp’s mansion that PLEIN APPELMANSSTRAAT Centraal
connection with Rubens bought to the Meir, look left – the tallest 4 Station
diamonds, go to the as his home and building is the KBC Tower 0.
diamond district. 3 Zebras at the studio in 1610. Complete with Art Deco PELIKAANSTRAAT ZOO
You can get a feel for Antwerp Zoo At the end of the detailing, it was Europe’s highest
this distinc tively Wapper, at Hopland skyscraper when topped out in
Jewish neighbourhood 2, is the Grand Café Horta 9, 1931. By walking up Lange
by walking down Pelikaanstraat a dynamic café-restaurant Klarenstraat, you can reach the
4 and Vestingstraat 5. By built in 2000 around structural Sint Jacobskerk (see p121) q on
continuing along De Keyserlei remnants salvaged from Victor Lange Nieuwstraat. This richly
and Leysstraat, you enter the Meir Horta’s classic Art Nouveau decorated church is famous
6, a broad, pedestrianized high building, the Maison du Peuple, as the burial place of Rubens.
street packed with large shops. in Brussels (see p82). Returning St-Jacobsstraat and Keizerstraat
lead to the Rockoxhuis (see
p121) w, which offers an insight
into how the homes of the rich
looked in the time of Rubens.
Wijngaardstraat will bring
you to the little square called
Hendrik Conscienceplein e,
named after the Flemish author
who wrote the novel The Lion
of Flanders (1838), a stirring tale
about the Battle of the Golden
Spurs of 1302; the book was a
landmark in the resurgence of
w One of the rooms inside the Rockoxhuis Flemish national pride.

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Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
Catalogue template “UK” LAYER
(Source v2.7)
Date 1st October 2013
Size 125mm x 217mm