The Seefhoek in Antwerp-Noord took its name from a cloudy beer drunk on a street corner after 1863. Its statistical district now houses 18,709 people at almost six times the city’s density.
Category: 🎡 Things to do
From must-see sights to off-the-beaten-path experiences, we highlight the best things to do in Antwerp. Get inspired and start planning your next adventure.
The Sinksenfoor, Antwerp’s Pentecost fair, and the move that worked
The Sinksenfoor opens on Pentecost weekend with about 150 stalls on Spoor Oost in Borgerhout. It moved there from the Zuid in 2015, after three years of court cases.
The Schipperskwartier, where Antwerp drew a line round its red-light district
Antwerp first told its prostitutes where to work in 1403. By the 1990s the Schipperskwartier had more than 240 windows in seventeen streets; after a residents’ petition the city confined them to three.
De Koninck still pours the Bolleke in Antwerp, but brews it in Breendonk
De Koninck brewed in Antwerp from 1833 until 2025. The Bolleke now comes from Duvel Moortgat’s brewery in Breendonk; the tours, the butcher, the cheese and the chocolate stayed on the Mechelsesteenweg.
The St Anna tunnel still crosses the Scheldt on wooden steps
Since 1933 the St Anna tunnel has carried walkers and cyclists 572 metres under the Scheldt, 31 metres down. Most of its 3.5 to 4 million users a year still take the wooden escalators.
Groenplaats: Antwerp’s old churchyard waits for its trees
The Groenplaats was the cathedral’s cemetery until Joseph II banned burials in 1784. From spring 2027 the square is to be dug up again, for 50 new trees and a bicycle store for 400 bikes.
Antwerp Fashion Weekend becomes the Antwerp.Fashion Festival
Antwerp’s fashion weekend now has an official name and a plan behind it. The first Antwerp.Fashion Festival, 4 to 7 June 2026, put on more than 100 shows and drew 26,500 visitors; the next is planned for 2028.
Antwerp Zoo is 183 years old and short of a subsidy
Antwerp Zoo opened on 21 July 1843 and has been a listed monument since 1983. In October 2026 Flanders cut the €3.4 million a year that helped keep its old buildings standing and its gates open in winter.
Linkeroever, the Left Bank, learns to cross the Scheldt again
Antwerp’s Left Bank has 16,545 residents and four tunnels to the rest of the city. Since May 2026 the tram tunnel is shut until July 2027, and a 500-hectare park has opened next door.
Easter in Antwerp: Rubens, a printing house, a zoo and 4,460 bikes
Easter 2027 falls on 28 and 29 March. Antwerp has no Easter market, but its cathedral holds the Rubens Passion paintings, and one of them is away for restoration.