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.
Category: 📸 Must see
Find the top must-see attractions in Antwerp in our comprehensive guide. Explore the city’s best landmarks, museums, and hidden gems. Don’t miss out
deSingel: Léon Stynen’s concrete arts campus in Antwerp
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.
Sint-Andries, from the parish of misery to the fashion quarter
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.
Antwerp Expo: the old Bouwcentrum keeps its halls full
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.
DIVA, Antwerp’s diamond museum, learns to explain the stones
DIVA opened on Suikerrui in 2018 with six rooms and a butler. Since its 2023 renovation, the museum of diamonds, jewellery and silver also asks where the stones come from.
Vrijdagmarkt, the Antwerp square that has auctioned furniture since 1549
Every Friday morning a bailiff and an auctioneer sell household goods from bankruptcies and estates on the Vrijdagmarkt, as the square has done since 1549. Under it, the district uncovered two Cold War bunkers.
FelixArchief: Antwerp’s memory in a harbour warehouse
Antwerp’s city archive has filled the Sint-Felixpakhuis, a warehouse of 1858 on the Eilandje, since 2006. It holds more than 30 kilometres of records, starting with two charters of 1221.
Battle of the Scheldt: how Antwerp’s port was opened in 1944
Antwerp was liberated on 4 September 1944, but no ship reached its docks until 28 November. The Battle of the Scheldt, fought mainly by the First Canadian Army, cost 12,873 casualties to open the river.
Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp: the KMSKA’s museum within a museum
The KMSKA reopened in 2022 after eleven years and more than €100 million. KAAN Architecten built a second museum inside the 1890 palace, and more than 570,000 people came in 2025.
Middelheim Museum: 75 years of free sculpture in an Antwerp park
Antwerp’s open-air sculpture museum began with 167 sculptures in Middelheim park in 1950. Seventy-five years on it holds about 440, across some 30 hectares, and still charges nothing.