Antwerp is a large port city in the Flanders region of Belgium. Its located just 40km North of Brussels and is very close to the Southern border of The Netherlands.
In the 16th century, Antwerp was the sugar capital of Europe and one of the richest city's on the continent. Today Antwerp is known for its diamond industry and trade and has one of the most important ports in the world - the second largest in Europe and among the top 20 largest around the globe.
If you walk along the river you will see a large statue of Minerva, the Roman goddess of art, trade and commerce - among other things. In the photo below you can see the old town square behind the statue along with the tower of the Our Lady cathedral in the background.
The city center has a large old market square with plenty of restaurants, bars and shops. They are set within some beautiful buildings that were built in a traditional Flemish Renaissance architectural design.
The city has a prestigious art school and was home to several famous artist in the country, including Peter Paul Rubens, a Dutch artist who specialized in Flemish Baroque style artwork. Like many Belgian cities, Antwerp has some really cool murals scattered around the city which demonstrate its artistic nature.
A somewhat interesting factoid about the city is that prostitution and sex work is completely legal and it has a large Red Light District that is similar to that of Amsterdam. We didn't visit the spot during our visit, so I don't have a whole lot to say about it. It did seem like something worth mentioning though.
By accident, we happened to be there during the city's annual beer festival, the one that celebrates a local brew from the De Koninck brewery called Bolleke.
The old town was bustling that day and was setup with a large beer tent and stage that was playing live music. A few other bands and performers were also scattered around singing or playing instruments.
A Boy and His Dog
In the main plaza Square directly in front of the Our Lady cathedral, is a statute of Nello and Patrasche, characters from a Belgian story called A Dog of Flanders. It's about a boy who dreams of being a painter just like his idol Peter Paul Rubens. The boy is forced to leave town after he is wrongfully accused of causing a fire in his village and he takes the opportunity to visit Ruebans and see his artwork in person. However, he is unable to visit the artist because he doesn't have any money and with no home and no place to go, the boy and his dog go to sleep inside the Antwerp cathedral. The story takes place around Christmas and on Christmas day the boy and his dog are found to have frozen to death in the night, underneath the boys favorite Rubens painting. Its all very touching.
The tale actually reminds me of the Danish story The little matchstick girl, which is another heart warming fable in which an orphan freezes to death in the cold on Christmas eve, this time while watching a wealthy family feast on Christmas dinner in a warm and cozy home with twinkling lights and a roaring fire.
I really love the old stories, the moral always seem to be a simple message of don't be poor or you will die.
The placement of the statue in front of the cathedral is quite fitting though really. Since you actually have to pay 6 euro to go inside the church, an orphan caught outside in the cold probably would freeze to death just outside its doors. This was the first cathedral I have ever been to in Europe where you actually had to pay to go inside. Naturally, we didn't go inside. I'm not sure why anyone would pay to go in a church when there are literally hundreds of similar ones across Europe that are free to enter. Did the Catholic church suddenly stop being one of the richest banks in the world? Why wasn't I informed?
Silvius Brado
Another cool statue with a story is located nearby in front of the city hall building. It's of a mythological character by the name of Silvius Brado. The story goes that a giant lived near a bridge over the Scheldt River who charged people a fee to cross it and enter the city. Those who did not pay would have a hand chopped off by the giant, who would then throw it into the river. Silvius Brado was a Roman soldier who came to the city and saw that the giants antics were hurting the people and its business so he killed the giant by chopping off his head. Then in a moment of poetic justice he chopped off the giants hand and threw it into the river. The statue is of the moment when Brado was just about to thrown the hand. Awesome!
Interestingly, the story is believed to give the town its name as well. Apparently, "ant-werpen," relates to "hand-throwing" in Dutch. Who knew?
If you do visit Antwerp, be careful if you plan to drive to the city. We got a 150 euro ticket for driving in an eco-zone. This actually happened to us in Ghent a few years ago as well. Doh!
You need a special sticker in your windshield to drive in an eco-zone in order to avoid getting a ticket. I think they are somehow linked to the camera system as well because we parked our car in underground parking lot and still got the ticket. I don't know how it all works to be honest.
On our drive to and from the city we passed by this amazing statue standing next to the highway. Its a naked cyclops - what!?! I have no idea why it's there or what it represents but it's probably one of the funniest things I've ever seen in Europe. Apparently they sometimes put pants on him and he's not the only naked cyclops statue in the country. LMAO 🤣.
So you happened to accidentally visit Antwerp during a beer festival! Oh snap! I always wonder if everyone end up drunk and chaos breaks out. 🤣
Nice pics, great choice of cover!
Mr. Bean 🤣
I actually forgot that the Red Light District was there until after we left. We probably would have walked through it for kicks had I remembered. But I figured I should at least mention it for the next person who goes lol.
We didn't stay the night in town. It was just a day trip for us, so we left before things got rowdy. No one was too drunk by mid afternoon lol.
We didn't go to the RLD and we didn't stay and get drunk. Hmmmm...
actually, I'm starting to think we might be boring people 🤔
I was drawn by the marble sculpture of Nello and Patrasche, the dog of Flanders. I used to watch this cartoon during my youth and it was a popular cartoon in the Philippines. I would really like to see this statue in person one day! Antwerp looks like a city with varieties of characters.
That's really interesting because when I was reading up on the story I read that it wasn't at all popular in Belgium but it had a huge following and was very popular in different parts of Asia and that's why they ended up building the monument. The online article may have been accurate you might be a real life example?
Yes, I suppose, I was already in my teens but still watched it. The rest of the kids back in that generation for sure. It was a really popular cartoon here in Asia back in the 90s, specifically in Japan, Korea, and the Philippines (it was even dubbed in our local language). This cartoon made us cry, it has a really sad ending but you're right, the moral of the story is to not go poor and one will end up miserable but their unconditional friendship really caught on and touched everyone. The pavement as a blanket is very impactful because they froze to death.
I have never seen the show myself nor read the full novella but I bet it is a good story and I'm sure there is more to it (friendship and all that) than my joke about the moral being to just not be poor in life. Some of the old stories are just so depressing though, they are almost funny. Especially the Danish ones. Little match stick girl and the original version of little mermaid, before Disney remade it. Everybody just dies in the end, sad and penniless...
Its almost funny when you realize that these are stories were written for children. No happy endings back then lol
Wow what a great look at Antwerp. I really didn't know much, if anything, about it. The architecture is beautiful. The dog statue is really neat how the ground all around comes up and is the blanket, super cool.
Yeah the dog statue is really cool. I don't know how they made the ground look seamless like that. It's pretty impressive.
I saw this post yesterday but was not able to write a nice comment because I was in hurry. This is a beautiful place, love all the architecture here and hahahha, what was that cyclope at the end? 🤣 With all that sun he thought he is at a nudist beach? 🤣
Haha yeah, the cyclops was really funny. I have no idea what it's purpose is, what it's advertising or why it's even there. I couldn't find anything online other than other people's comments on seeing it and thinking it was funny. So 🤷
🤣
It's terrible in some parts of Asia exacerbated by warm weather. If one with huge debt chooses to die irresponsibly let's say overdose on sleeping pills or jumping off a building, the housing area might depreciate significantly. If one chooses to get crushed by the subway, the parents will be fined heftily on top of repaying the debt incurred earlier. Dying similarly to the little match girl sounds like a much better option. This is the reason I prefer places with heavy snowfall. At least I will be pitied without burdening anyone.
I probably shouldn't have joked around in my post about poverty and death. It is a very serious issue in the world.
That's crazy that the family and others in society can be impacted financially from tragic situations like that. That's a shame.
This is more food for thought than rebuke. I think some governments can behave very inhumanely to deter suicides.
Yes, I agree.
Thanks so much. I appreciate the support!
I enjoyed your photography. Antwerp is so stunning and photogenic. I hope I'll visit it one day. 🥰
Well I'm glad you liked it and hope you get a chance.
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