Kinepolis Antwerpen opened in 1993 as Metropolis, with 24 screens on the Groenendaallaan in Merksem. Its best feature may be the tram stop named after it.
Hendrik Beyaert’s National Bank building on Leopoldplaats was inaugurated in 1879 and closed as a bank branch in 2014. Its strongrooms now hold furniture.
Léon Stynen began deSingel in 1958 and it opened in full in 1980. Stéphane Beel’s wooden extension followed in 2010, and the Blue Hall has had a €4 million refit.
Antwerp’s Sint-Andries parish was founded in 1523, after its friars were tried for heresy. Its church has a pulpit of fishermen in a boat, a memorial to Mary Stuart’s ladies-in-waiting and a Virgin dressed by Ann Demeulemeester.
1,470 companies and more than 3,300 people trade diamonds in three streets beside Central Station. What the district is, how the trade is doing, and whether the stones are cheaper here.
Antwerp Expo, the former Bouwcentrum on the Jan Van Rijswijcklaan, has five halls and more than 80 fairs and events a year. Its owner also organises fairs, and that is the point.
The Hilton Antwerp Old Town has occupied Adolphe Kileman’s 1885 department store on the Groenplaats since 1993. A permit granted in January 2026 lets it add four floors and 137 rooms.
Sergio Herman, once three Michelin stars at Oud Sluis, opened Frites Atelier at Korte Gasthuisstraat 32 in 2017. It is not the frituur on the Hoogstraat.
Napoleon ordered Antwerp’s first dock here in 1811. The old dock district now holds the MAS, the Red Star Line sheds, the city archive and a two-star restaurant in a warehouse of 1895.
Every summer Zomer van Antwerpen opens a disused gasworks on the Minkelersstraat to anyone who walks in. The Zomerfabriek is free, open until one in the morning, and has a skate zone.
