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.
Tag: Bart De Wever
Handelsbeurs Antwerp: the world’s first exchange is a short cut again
Antwerp’s merchants built the world’s first purpose-built exchange in 1531. After nearly twenty empty years and a €60 million restoration, the Handelsbeurs is open again.
Chocolate Nation, opposite Centraal: a million visitors and no subsidy
Chocolate Nation opened opposite Antwerp’s Centraal station in 2019, cost €11.5 million of private money and passed one million visitors in October 2025.
The Antwerp 10 Miles goes under the Scheldt twice
The Antwerp 10 Miles started in 1986 with 800 runners. For its 40th edition, in April 2026, all 40,000 places for the Sunday race sold out in under an hour.