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.
Tag: Napoleon
The Eilandje, where Antwerp’s docks began, has new tenants
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.
Zurenborg, Antwerp’s art nouveau quarter on sour ground
Most of Zurenborg went up between 1894 and 1906, on a farm named after its acidic soil. A plan to demolish the Cogels-Osylei failed, and in 1980 the street was protected.
The Chocolate Line: Dominique Persoone’s kitchen in Napoleon’s palace
Dominique Persoone opened The Chocolate Line in the Paleis op de Meir in 2010. The pralines are made in the palace’s 18th-century kitchen, in full view of the till.
Bar Paniek, the Kattendijkdok summer bar that comes down every autumn
Since 2015 the artists’ collective Timecircus has built Bar Paniek each spring in two sheds on the Kattendijkdok, from salvaged wood and old window frames, and taken it down each autumn.
Port of Antwerp: Europe’s second port, seen from the water
Port of Antwerp-Bruges handled 266.5 million tonnes of cargo in 2025 and is run from a Zaha Hadid building on an old fire station. The way in is a boat from the Asiadok, from €23.