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Shopping streets to Groenplaats

Area around Antwerp Cathedral

Cathedral of Our-Lady

Grote Markt and Town hall

Guild houses-Vlaaykensgang

Hoogstraat and Grote Pieter Potstraat

Printers museum Plantin-Moretus

Museum Mayer van den Bergh-Maagdenhuis

Strolling to the Carolus Borromeus church

Rockoxhuis- Rubens tomb at St.Jacobskerk

Cogels-Osylei area, unique in the world (1)

Cogels Osy area, unique in the world (2)

For a lot of Antwerp inhabitants it is not Central station, Meir nor even the port that aspires, by an irresistible osmosis, artists and painters. The “centre” for the “Sinjoren” (as Antwerpians are called) is delimited by the Groenplaats where you are standing now and the Handschoenmarkt because there is a cathedral holding our admiring curiosity. Its spire, superb, leaves us stunned. Indissociable from its environment, this cathedral of Our Lady, the largest gothic church of northern Europe, expanded around the Groenplaats. But we will learn all about this beautiful edifice in next article.
Now, let’s take the small Jan Blomstraat, running at the left side of the cathedral and ending after 100 yards in a splendid and cute square: Handschoenmarkt.
This small square reminds of the 16th century Antwerp with its unequal pavements and small houses. In older times, shacks surrounded the cathedral where the stone carvers and workmen building the edifice were living. But today it attracts a lot of tourists. On this Handschoenmarkt, in front of a splendid porch, the heart of Antwerp beats more intensively.


Terraces on Handschoenmarkt	cathedral porch

The surrounding lost its residential value because of the affluence of these tourists coming to taste the flavours and joys of the spectacle offered by the small medieval streets around the cathedral of Our Lady. Right of the porch notice a group sculpture of Jef Lambeaux representing the architect Pieter Appelmans who started the building in 1431. The cathedral was refurbished and cleaned in the nineties and is like new, as well inside as outside. Cost: 1.5 billion Bfr. But cathedrals are permanent building-yards today. Everywhere. France counts 149 cathedrals and their conservation and restoration is a heavy financial burden for the state.
If you advance a little bit and stand in the middle of the square, the cathedral looks majestic and of an astonishing beauty. Its high spire can compete with the one in Strasbourg. Stop at the Quinten Metsys well (on the Handschoenmarkt facing the cathedral). This iron wrought masterpiece is well known by all Antwerp citizens: the rendezvous place for lovers, a reference of centre town, a meeting place juts a jiffy away from the numerous taverns, cafes, restaurants and terraces you can find all around you.
Like the Handschoenmarkt where you are on now: packed with small restaurants souvenir shops and cafes whose terraces seem to grow larger every summer.
And if you happen to be in Antwerp in the summer, on Monday evenings, the alleys and streets around the cathedral are packed and super animated by young and old, coming to listen to the famous cathedral carillon concerts. The heart of the city is excited, when the carillon player sends the crystalline notes all over old Antwerp. Not easy to move around from one café to another, Monday nights in the summer!! Fire-eaters, musicians, contestants, neo or archeo are part of the fun and add a little more to the ambience…

Brussels	Antwerp	Ghent	Bruges
ANTWERP-Area around Cathedral of Our-Lady