Quite an introduction!

Category: Monuments

Quite an introduction!

If you want to have a really nice idea of some of the nice things the city of Antwerp has in store for you, visit https://app.nimia.com/video/6528/i-love-antwerp-antwarpe-39kzien-a-zoe-geire-tjoez-, enjoy the video and then get ready to enjoy the real thing.

Some of the things you’ll see: Central Station, Groenplaats, Cathedral, skyline, pedestrian tunnel, … All pictures were taken a few years ago (2012) and you’ll get a chance to hear the local dialect as sung by a band called the Strangers.

Monuments

Hof van Liere: a symbol of wealth

Between 1515 and 1520 Arnold van Liere, mayor of the town, had a mansion built on newly developed grounds to the east of the city. People say one of the many guests to stay with mayor van Liere was the young Charles of Habsburg. The same one who later became Emperor Charles V. That is why this mansion is still called Prinsenhof. It also explains how the Prinsstraat got its name. Another visitor to stay with van Liere was the German painter Albrecht Dürer. In his diary he wrote he had never before seen a house so beautiful, so rich. One of the architects for the complex is Domien De Waghemaekere, one of the top architects of the era.

Different functions for Hof van Liere

Hof Van Liere – First Inner Court

After van Liere’s death the city bought the complex and housed the English Nation in it. A corridor linked the complex with the wool store houses in the Venusstraat. After the Spanish Fury of 1576 many English traders decided to leave the city. By 1583 the English House stood empty.

In 1601 Albrecht and Isabella wanted to install the house as their residence. This was refused by the magistrate. They preferred to hand over the complex to the jesuits. They wanted to use it to house their college that had grown too big at Conscienceplein.

In 1713 the jesuit order was abolished. In the Austrian period the buildings were used as a military academy. The French used it to house a military hospital in it. Afterwards the building started to be neglected and got the nature of a ruin.

Re-enter the jesuits

Library in City Campus UA
Source: Vlaamse Erfgoedbibliotheek

In the first half of the 20th century the jesuits took possession of the neglected buildings. They started a series of restaurations and renovations to make the building fit for their Higher Commercial School “Sint-Ignatius”. In the ’60s this highschool was transformed in a university. UFSIA (Universitaire Faculteiten Sint-Ignatius), which later fused with the other Antwerp university center (RUCA, run by the government) to eventually form the University of Antwerp.

Nowadays Hof van Liere houses the City Campus of UA. In recent years a completely new library has successfully been incorporated the historical buildings.

The website of UA: https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/

Monuments, Outdoors

Central Station: 19th century splendour

A wooden station as a start…

Traditionally visitors entered Antwerp by boat, but in the second half of the 19th century this suddenly changed. A new way of transportation developed very rapidly: the railways. Belgium was the very first country on the mainland to develop a network of railways. The first track was opened in 1835 and transported passengers and goods from Brussels to Mechelen and back. Only a year later this track extended into Antwerp and a station arose.

A very first wooden building located more or less at the crossing of Carnotstraat and Astridplein, served as a station. In the very first years this area was rather desolate. It lay completely outside of the city borders as the city was still held behind its ‘Spanish’ walls, the present-day ‘Boulevard’ consisting of Italiëlei, Frankrijklei, Britselei and Amerikalei. That also explains why the Zoo is situated in this same area: grounds were cheap.

An old postcard showing Central Station
An old postcard showing Central Station (Source: architectura.be)

From the 1850s on harbour activity in Antwerp started booming again. The town drew thousands of labourers from the neighbouring countryside and new living quarters had to be devoloped.

Among others in the neighbourhood of the railwaytrack. So when, at the end of the 19th century we wanted to build a new station and extend the railwaylines further north, this had become impossible.

for a Railway Cathedral

Inner view of Central Station
Inner view of Central Station (Source: expedia.be)

A new station was built, ordered by King Leopold II who had a flair for developing huge projects. He is the one e.g. who was responsible for the ‘restoration’ of medieval Bruges. The new station had to be a prestigious building to welcome visitors from all over the world.

The architect de la Canserie created a building based on ancient examples like the Pantheon, adding style elements of renaissance, baroque and classicism, using new materials and techniques and in fact creating a showcase of the different kinds of stone that the Belgian soils contained.

In recent surveys the Antwerp Central Station was often listed among the most beautiful railwaystation in the world. So make sure you have a look at it now that it has been restored in its original splendour.

Monuments , , , , , , ,

Conscienceplein: start of a new era (2)

The library

Last Thursday I ended by talking about the building on the west side of the Conscienceplein: the sodalities. After the pope had abolished the jesuits in 1773 the buildings and everything in them were publicly sold. The building the sodalities had occupied in the previous years got different functions. It was a workshop, warehouse, dancing hall, public bar (a brewer’s advertisement can still be noticed) and so on. In 1879 the City Council bought the building to house the town’s library.

map Conscienceplein
Map Conscienceplein (source Googlemaps)

In fact there were two: a library of old, valuable books and manuscripts and a library where people could rent the more current type of books. That is why at the end of the 19th century a statue of Hendrik Conscience was placed in the niche of the sodality. Hendrik Conscience at that time was the most important author in Flemish literature, as popular in Flanders as Victor Hugo was in France.

From about 1622 till the French revolutionaries demolished it, a statue of the Holy Virgin has stood in the same niche.

You can find the entrance to the library now in Korte Nieuwstraat. Guided visits are organised and the 19th century ‘Nottebohmzaal’ certainly is worth a visit. These visits start from the green door in the south-west corner of the square. [http://www.consciencebibliotheek.be/en]

The church

The building opposite the sodalities/library is the old jesuits’ church devoted to Saint Carl-Borromeus. It is generally accepted that Rubens had a hand in the decorations of the façade and of the bell-tower which you can find at the back-side along Sint-Kathelijnevest.

It is clear the church is built in the typical jesuitstyle as laid out by the Roman Il Gesù Church. Giving a detailed description here would lead us too far, so have a little patience.

The square

Young people at the iceblock blockades.
Young people at the iceblock blockades. (Source: Mhka).

In the 1960’s this square was the scene of an artistic uprising, joined by many young people in town to put an end to the reign of the Car. Using huge blocks of ice they blocked off the entrance to the square for cars. Musicians, artists, dancers and pedestrians took over the space. The uprising was a success and not only the square, but also the surrounding streets became the very first pedestrian zone in Antwerp. Of course for weddings and funerals car can still enter the square.

Short video fragment (Dutch commentary).

Going out, Monuments, Outdoors , , , , , , , , , , ,

Conscienceplein: start of a new era (1)

The Conscienceplein, situated in front of the Carolus-Borromeüs church, is an interesting place to visit in more than one way. It is an early example of urbanism, has some very interesting examples of baroque architecture and in the latter part of the previous century it became the very first pedestrians only zone in town.

Early Urbanism

A simulation of Antwerp around 1200
A simulation of Antwerp around 1200 seen from the west

Around 1200 the city was surrounded by a series of canals that started in the south with Suikerrui which ran into Kaasrui, then continued to Wijngaardbrug all the way to Koepoortbrug and eventually ended in Koolkaai which ran into the river.

By the 17th century the city had grown and now was defended by a huge wall that ran in a semicircle around town. The present day ‘boulevard’ (Italiëlei, Frankrijklei, Britselei, Amerikalei) is built on the remains of this defensive wall. That meant that the town no longer needed the old ruien-system for defensive reasons. People had been using them as sewers, so they must have stunk very badly when the weather was hot. Therefore the authorities encouraged owners to cover the canal bordering their property. Sometimes the land was given for free.

In come the Jesuits

When you come from City Hall or the cathedral, you enter Conscienceplein from the west. Take a look at the smaller houses on your left (north side). At one time the whole square was full of houses like these. When the jesuits returned to Antwerp in the early 17th century, about half of the population had fled the town and the Spanish authorities. Most of them had gone to Amsterdam, Haarlem and other Dutch cities and taken their trade with them.

A view of the jesuits' lodgings and the sodalities on Conscienceplein
A view of the jesuits’ lodgings (left) and the sodalities (right)

Anyway, many older houses stood empty and the jesuits decided to create their stronghold on Conscienceplein. Unlike other religious orders jesuits do not live in cloisters or abbeys. They lived together in a house like the one you see on the south side of the square. In this part of the buildings the jesuits also opened a college where they trained young men in the classic languages.

Underneath these buildings on the south side of Conscienceplein, the old ‘rui’ still flew, turning to the north to pass underneath the church and flow into what is now the Minderbroedersrui.

The building on the west side housed two ‘sodalities’. These were congregations of lay men (the single ones on the second floor, the married ones on the first floor) devoted to the service of the Holy Mother.

Rubens was a member of the sodality on the first floor, Van Dyck took part on the second floor. Both made nice paintings and decorations for their sodality, but unfortunately the Austrians took them at the moment the jesuit order was abolished in 1773. We must now travel to Vienna to get a glimpse of these works.

To be continued

Monuments, Outdoors , , , , , , , , ,

A quiet spot in the middle of town: the Antwerp beguinage

Entrance to the beguinage in the Rodestraat
Entrance to the beguinage in the Rodestraat

A beguine is a woman who lives together with fellow sisters inside a beguinage, a little secluded from the world. Like a nun she has vowed to obey the convent’s head-mistress (grootjoffer), to live a life of poverty and chastity . Unlike a nun she can always leave the community she is living in.

History

The first beguines appeared around the era of the crusades. The many wars in Europe and the crusades themselves had resulted in a surplus of women. For many of them it had become impossible to find a suitable mate. Moreover very often they could not raise the dowry to enter a classical convent. So they started forming groups of women who lived together and performed chores to earn their living.

Among these chores were laundry work, nursing, teaching, lacework and the like. At first the Church authorities regarded them with some mistrust. They feared it might result in a new form of heresy, but gradually the Church accepted these half-nuns. Usually a monk, mainly franciscan or dominican, looked after them and guided them in their religious life.

A view of a street inside the beguinage
A view of a street inside the beguinage

In the twentieth century the number of beguines dropped drastically. Nowadays there are no beguines anymore. At least not in our region. In some German towns like Hamburg e.g. a new beguinage arose, although the religious aspect is not always as important as it used to. These present day beguines do not live in a hierarchically ordered society either.

Spread

Almost every town in the Netherlands used to have a beguinage. Some cities had more than one. In its heydays a beguinage could count 150 to 160 beguines which was a bit difficult to manage. So very often they founded a new one.

In 1998 13 Flemish beguinages were placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Unfortunately the Antwerp one wasn’t. The Antwerp beguinage used to border the city walls. In World War II the area suffered tremendously from bombings and in the 1960’s blocks of flats were built. The backsides of these blocks now befoul the view from the beguinage.

Still: the beguinage with its interior garden is an oasis in the otherwise busy environment of the students’ quarter. The center of the Antwerp University and the Ossenmarkt with its many bars, lie just around the corner. If you go there, respect the quiet of the place, please.

More information on Flemish beguinages can be found here.

Monuments, Outdoors , , , , , , , , ,

Rubens’ statue

One of the most popular meeting places in town is at the feet of Rubens’ statue on the Groenplaats. This used to be a green churchyard (i.e. one without gravestones for ordinary people). But be assured: the bodies have long since been taken away and are now replaced by car that are parked in the garage underneath.

image of Rubens' statue from the west side
Source: standbeelden.be

History

The statue was made by a local sculptor W. Geefs to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Rubens’ death in 1840. Unfortunately Geefs did not succeed in getting his sculpture ready in time. He cast a plaster copy and had it transported to the place it was supposed to stand originally: the Steenplein. Suddenly the casting slid from the carriage and was broken to pieces. Eventually it was three years later, in 1843, that the image was placed on the Groenplaats.

Again things didn’t go as planned: it had been raining quite heavily, the ground was soaked and a wheel slid into what had probably once been a grave. Rubens again fell to earth, but fortunately this time he was made of bronze and survived the drop.

Description

Greefs portrayed Rubens in his three dimensions: as a gentleman, as a diplomat and as a painter. It seems that the previous aspects were more important to Greefs than his artistic side. His palette lies  behind his feet, together with a bag filled with documents. More prominent is the rich way he is dressed. It is clear this is not just anyone, on the contrary a very important person. Just watch the self confident way he stands there, the left hand carelessly resting on his sword, the right hand stretched out to bid us all welcome to his city. And maybe also to some his nicest works in the cathedral behind him.

Rubens does not face these works, neither does he look at his house and workshop. Instead he looks straight south. Might he be looking at Italy, where he perfected his craft as prof. Claes suggested in  his book “Van Mensen en Steden”?

More on W. Geefs can be found on Wikipedia.

Monuments , , , , , , ,

A store with a story

This facade in the Kipdorpvest now houses a branch of the America Today chain, and even if you are not really looking for a new pair of jeans you should really take a look inside.

The place used to be a theatre in the 1940’s and further on, until television became too popular in the 1960’s, and the place had to close its doors in the early 1970’s.

The theatre was known as the AB, short for Ancienne Belgique (Old Belgium) and it was run by the same management as the AB in Brussels and in Ghent. For some time Bruno Coquatrix, who was to lead the famous Olympia theatre in Paris, used to work as an assistant in the Brussels office of AB.

AB was a vaudeville theatre. Every night a show was performed that contained an orchestra, a ballet, some clowns or comedians, some acrobats, a show with poodles, some local singers, but the top of the bill usually were international stars from France, Germany, Great Britain or the USA. Gilbert Bécaud was here, so was Freddy Quinn, even Louis Armstrong performed in this theatre. Tickets were sold at a reasonable price: the management was confident visitors would spend more on food on drinks that were served throughout the evening.

The building itself dates back to 1902 and originally served as the offices of a newspaper called “La Métropole”. It is a nice example of neo-renaissance building, one of the many styles that were popular in the late 19th and early 20th century in Flanders. It is a style that imitates the way houses were built in the 16th century, incorporating modern techniques. The result usually is much more sober than the eclectic styles and neo-baroque styles that were also popular in the same era.

The architect responsible for the original building is also responsible for the eclectic building on the corner of Leysstraat and Teniersplaats, which practically borders the AB building. A clearer examples of the differences between both styles is hard to find. When the offices were turned into a theater, this was done with respect for the facade and fortunately, when the theater was turned into a shop, the interior has also been respected. So be sure to have a look at this historical place that many older Antwerp people still think of with a lot of melancholy.

Monuments, Shop , , , ,

Nearly 200 times Our Lady

Maybe you have already noticed them while walking through the streets of the city, or maybe your eyes were glued to the shop windows and all the goodies they had on display, anyway if you look up at almost any corner of the historical city center, you will notice a Madonnastatue. And no, it is not the one who called her daughter Lourdes, but the one who gave birth to Jesus Christ.

Spread all over the inner town some 170 statues have survived the brutal anger of the French revolutionary troops and the greedy building boom of the 1970’s. Many more used to adorn the inner city. Why are there so many of these statues you might wonder. Well, there are different reasons.

The first and probably most important reason is that Our Lady is the city’s patron: the main church is devoted to her, and her image can also be seen on the most prominent place in the city hall.

The second reason has to do with the period in which most of these statues originated. I  use the term originated because some of the statues have been newly made, mostly in the 19th century, some have been restored in recent years, some are copies of the original ones and some still are the original ones, dating back to the 17th and 18th century.

Antwerp had a first Golden Age in the 16th century: it was the most important city in the north of Europe and merchants from all over the world had their seat in Antwerp. Merchants usually are tolerant people: they do not really care what colour your skin is or what you believe in, they only want to know if they can rely on you when doing business. So this sixteenth century city quickly came under the influence of Lutheranism, Calvinism, Anabaptism and other forms of religious reformation. This was all brutally put down by Philippe II, the archcatholic king of Spain who also reigned over the Netherlands.

In 1585 the city fell in the hands of the Spanish army led by Farnese which led to the separation of the Netherlands: the southern part remained Spanish and catholic, the northern part became a republic under the name of United Provinces. Many merchants left the city and fled to northern cities like Amsterdam and Haarlem, which eventually took over the leading role of Antwerp in European trade.

In the seventeenth century our city became catholic again and was an important centre of contra-reformation. The presence of the Jesuits played an important part in the process and it was they who had the statue of Brabo, a legendary figure who is linked to the origins of the city, replaced by a statue of Our Lady in the city hall. Mary was a central figure in contra-reformation, so her image appeared on many a street corner.

Very often the statue has a lantern, which is a third reason why the statues adorn street corners. As street lights were missing in the 17th and 18th century city, the lanterns provided some kind of light and some kind of safety for people who had to walk home through the dark streets.

Folklore, Monuments , , , , , , , , , ,

Our historical churches

Although a number of historical churches have vanished (e.g. the Walburgischurch in the very center of the old town, and the church belonging to the St-Michael’s cloister in the environment of the Kloosterstraat), we still have 5 churches with a rich historical background.

The most important of these of course is the Cathedral, Our Lady’s Church, situated between the Town Hall and the Groenplaats, which by the way used to be a cemetery belonging to the church. This gothic masterpiece is especially known for its 4 Rubens paintings. While restauration works are on their way in the Fine Arts Museum, part of the collection, which originally belonged to the cathedral, are on display again. So the cathedral is an interesting museum of its own.

The youngest of the historical churches is the Jesuits’ church: St-Carl-Borromeus. Its façade is a fine example of baroque art, but only inside will you be able to feel the effect of baroque completely, especially when you enter the Houtappel chapel (to your right facing the main altar). Also this church is closely connected with Rubens as there are clear signs that Rubens had a hand in the design of both the façade and the tower. Originally the aisles left and right had their ceilings painted by Rubens, but a fire in 1718 destroyed all of these paintings. Rubens also painted two large canvases for the main altar, but the originals are now on display in Vienna. The really unique thing about this church is that the painting adorning the main altar can be switched. The original device to perform this feat is still active and is being used four times a year.

Another church linked with Rubens is St-James’s, located near St-Jacobsmarkt, entrance via the southern aisle in Lange Nieuwstraat. Here the master is buried beneath a painting of his own choice. This church boasts a very impressive main altar in baroque style and an organ on which the young Mozart one gave a concert as he passed Antwerp in the company of his father and his sister.

At the Veemarkt (Cattle Market) you can find the entrance to St-Paul’s, which used to be the church of the dominicans as you can clearly see from the engravings above the entrance. In the church you will find paintings of all the great masters (Rubens, Van Dijck, Jordaens, …) but equally impressive is the calvary you will find in a courtyard belonging to the church.

Last but not least there’s St-Andrew’s (entrance Waaistraat) which boasts what is probably the most fascinating pulpit in the world.

Monuments , , , , , , , , ,

To make your visit to this website as smooth as possible we use cookies. The cookies are used for statistical reasons and do not store any personal data. If you do not wish to use cookies. You can indicate this by clicking on the No button.