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ANTWERP- Grote Markt-Town Hall-A splendour

Antwerp Zoological garden

Antwerp by foot, its insolent and secret treasures

Introducing the walk Keyserley-Leysstraat-Meir

Meir shopping, slowly loitering to Rubens house

Rubens, his life and his house

Bird market-Bourla theatre - more shopping

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)

The very heart of old Antwerp, “Grote Markt”. This Flemish name meaning “market” appears for the first time in 1310. It’s only in the 16th century that “Grote “(large) is added to distinguish it from another square. Town hall, “Stadhuis” in Flemish, was built between 1561 and 1564 by Floris De Vriendt, called Floris, replacing the old house of the municipal magistrates dating from the first half of the 15th century but being outdated to represent a city, a great port becoming the absolute centre of world trade! Inaugurated in February 1565, the edifice was ravaged by fire during the “Spanish furia” in 1576 and its reconstruction in 1579 lasted for 5 years. Damaged again by French troops at the end of the 18th century, the building was refurbished, inside like outside in the 19th century.
Antwerp’s “Stadhuis” (City hall), is one of the oldest Italian Renaissance buildings ever erected in Flanders and the Netherlands. Look at the façade measuring 68 meters horizontally. It is interrupted in the middle by a high frontispiece with nook and fronton: an eagle with spread wings turned to the east (Aachen was then the capital of the German Saint-Empire) crowns this forepart. Three coat of arms on the façade: left the one of the duke of Brabant (golden lion on black background), in the centre the coat of arms of the Spanish king Philippe II, ruler of the Netherlands, Flanders included) and on the right the marquisate of Antwerp, reuniting the arms of the city and the bicephal imperial eagle. Between the coat of arms you can see the statues of Wisdom and Justice, virtues of Antwerp. And in front of City Hall, the bronze statue of the brave Brabo by Jef Lambeaux, Brabo celebrating its legendary exploit (since more than a century) on the Grote Markt.
According to the legend, the valorous Brabo vanquished, by his audacity and cleverness, the redoubtable giant Antigoon, living in the fortified castle “Steen” still visible along the quays behind Town hall. The giant stood in the middle of the Scheldt stream and cut off the hands of all who couldn’t pay and exorbitant passage tax to enter the port of Antwerp. Brabo succeeded to do the same with Antigoon: he cut of his hand and threw in the Scheldt. This saving gesture saved the port of Antwerp, gave it an economic prosperity and a name to the city! In Flemish “throw a hand” is “hand werpen” which turned into Antwerpen over the centuries….Serious historians deny of course this version.
The interior arrangement of Town Hall is from the 19th century. The Leys hall decorated with wall paintings evoking the great days of the city, the wedding room restored after the fire of 1576, the Council room  (style Louis XIV) and the cabinets of the Mayor and the City counsellors are worth a visit.
Corporation houses around the Grote Markt will be the object of my next article.