With its handsome squares, cobbled alleyways, excellent restaurants and smart shops, Antwerp is a buzzing, stylish town, famous for its diamonds, arts and fashion.
Belgium’s second city has been the diamond capital of the world for centuries. Armed guards and traders with handcuffed briefcases announce that you are in the Diamond Quarter, while dozens of shops sell discounted ‘rocks’.
Antwerp, home of the Flemish Baroque master Peter Paul Rubens, also has a wealth of outstanding museums and galleries.
Antwerp’s port is Europe’s second (after Rotterdam), one of the 10 largest in the world, and principal source of the city’s wealth. The importance of Antwerp’s maritime heritage will be celebrated with the opening of the new MAS museum in late 2010.
Antwerp gained fame during the 1980s through the efforts of the ‘Antwerp Six’. These six avant-garde designers’ legacy is very much alive today, not just in the Fashion Museum, or in the Antwerp Fashion Academy school, but on many streets, where it seems that every other shop window is a designer statement.
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