Antwerp: Culture, Museums and Unique City Stories

Antwerp combines an impressive cultural history with unusual museum experiences. Anyone planning a trip can bring together very different themes here: the Renaissance and Baroque periods, art, diamonds, photography, emigration and the history of the city. When choosing a suitable holiday apartment in Antwerp, it is worth deciding on your main focus first. Depending on whether you want to visit many collections, explore historic sites or alternate between culture and green spaces, your days will take on a different rhythm.

Printing, City History and Special Collections

A highlight for visitors interested in cultural history is the Plantin-Moretus House-Workshops-Museum Complex. It is home to the only surviving printing workshop and publishing house in the world from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The Plantin-Moretus Museum is also a house where nine generations lived and worked. Visitors can view centuries-old books there. This makes the site particularly suitable for anyone who wants not only to look at works of art, but also to understand how knowledge, books and craftsmanship were connected over long periods.

Het Steen preserves the foundations of a medieval hall, one of three gates to the former castle area and parts of its defensive wall. The interactive visitor experience “The Antwerp Story” explores Antwerp’s history and identity. From the rooftop terrace of Het Steen, visitors can look out over the Scheldt, the city and the port. The site of the Cathedral of Our Lady also has a long religious history: for more than 1,000 years, this place has attracted people seeking the sacred.

Other collections each have their own distinctive focus. DIVA conveys Antwerp’s rich history of diamonds and goldsmithing. KMSKA houses 8,200 works of art, including works by Flemish Primitives, modern masters and Flemish Expressionists. FOMU’s image collection now comprises more than 900,000 images. It illustrates the development of international photography and, in particular, Belgian photography. FOMU collects historical and contemporary photography as well as art photography, documentary photography, fine-art and applied photography.

Memory, Garden Spaces and Flexible Daily Plans

The Red Star Line Museum offers another gateway to Antwerp’s history. Two million passengers crossed the Atlantic from Antwerp to North America on Red Star Line steamships. At the museum, visitors follow the emigrants’ journey from their country of origin through the long voyage and their temporary stay in Antwerp to their arrival in America or Canada. This topic complements art and city history with personal travel stories and international connections.

Those who want to alternate between indoor spaces and green surroundings will also find distinctive places to visit. Middelheim Museum covers 30 hectares. The garden of Rubenshuis contains more than 22,000 plants. These two figures describe different ways of spending a day in Antwerp: one destination represents spacious museum grounds, while the other offers a garden with an exceptional number of plants. This allows you to consciously alternate between collections, historical narratives and more tranquil exploration when planning your trip.

The Right Accommodation for Your Trip to Antwerp

When looking for a holiday apartment or holiday home in Antwerp, it helps to choose a clear theme. Culture enthusiasts can plan their days around the history of printing, painting, photography and the city’s identity. Those more interested in migration and international connections can make the Red Star Line Museum a focus of its own. Other travellers combine historic sites with garden spaces or the view from Het Steen. The verified attractions therefore cover a wide range of interests, without requiring you to limit yourself to just one type of city experience.

For further trip planning, you can also find the local pages here: Wilrijk, Borgerhout, Berendrecht-Zandvliet-Lillo and Merksem. This allows you to get to know Antwerp and its different travel ideas step by step.

For the higher-level travel overview: Province of Antwerp.

More destinations

More places in the same destination:

Herentals, Malle, Herselt, Kapellen.