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.
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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.
The Seefhoek, the Antwerp district named after a beer
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.
Luddites Books & Wine: the Antwerp bookshop that pays you to stay
Richard Bolte and Jorien Caers opened Luddites in a 1902 townhouse on Hopland in March 2020. Buy a book downstairs and the first glass of wine upstairs is half price.
Antwerp’s Meir is getting the world’s largest Zara and a new floor
The Meir has been car-free since 1993 and draws more than 1.4 million visitors a month. Zara is building its largest shop in the world on the corner, and the city plans to relay the street from facade to facade, starting in 2028 at the earliest.