On the last day of February 1221, the city of Antwerp received a charter giving it a number of privileges. The city could raise its own taxes, define its own rules and laws and enforce those laws, assisted by a representative of the central authorities. This charter acknowledged the growing importance of a settlement that had begun to play a role in interregional and even international trade.

The river Scheldt was the main route to transport goods on, although the river itself was quite different from today: it was not yet directly connected to the North Sea, but was a river that joined the massive delta of Rhine and Meuse in the North. It would take another two centuries before massive storms would create a smoother connection to the rest of the world. In the meantime, the city slowly, but steadily prepared to take over the central role of Bruges near the end of the 15th century.

This anniversary cannot go by unnoticed, so my friends and colleagues at Antwerpen à la Carte developed both a cycling tour and a walking tour to celebrate the event. Unfortunately, due to corona, you’ll have to wait unti we get a green light to really head off.

Starting December 2018 Zanzibar is offering a completely new walking experience that takes you from the heavenly Carolus Borromeüs church in no time to the dark vaults of the “ruien”.

You start off with an exploration of the magnificent jesuits’ church, including a visit to the highly decorated baroque Houtappel chapel. Then you go down to the crypts of the church and then the guide takes you to the sacristy from where you reach the cellar. And this cellar, for centuries has had a passage to the “ruien”, the old canals of the city, that at the onset served as a defensive moat, later as a means of transportation and afterwards as a sewage system.

Once a door was installed. To what purpose, is still a mystery. Many a strong tale is told, but not once of them stands up to a bit of scrutiny, not even the one that says that the priests took that road to go on a mission to ‘convert’ the girls working in the nearby red light quarter. As time went on and more and more canals were covered, and more and more stench built up in the canals, it was once decided to remove the door and brick up the passageway.

Nowadays all sewage water, wether it be household water or rainwater, is held in tubes. Stench within the canal system therefore is very low, so the idea grew to open up the door again and allow visitors, in the company of a guide, to visit a part of the Antwerp underground. Just like the standard ruien walks, this tour also ends in the Keistraat, at the entrance to the red light quarter.

More practical information can be found on the website of the Ruihuis.

You may have noticed I have been very quiet on this medium which all has to do with a project I started with 5 of my friends: Antwerpen à la Carte. Feel free to visit our site, and if you want to book a walk in Antwerp for a group, don’t look any further. Besides that I have been studying to become a city guide in the city of Mechelen as well.

As things are slowly calming down, I’ll try to pick up the routine again and make sure there’s something new to read here, at least every fortnight. So early October I’ll release a new post, and as I love Mechelen too, every now and then a topic on that town will be covered as well.