Embark on a guided walking tour of Antwerp and discover the city’s rich history and culture. Choose from a variety of tours that suit your interests, whether you want to explore the city’s main historical sites, learn about its architectural gems, or uncover the secrets of its cathedral. Please indicate 1 of the 5 options listed when making your reservation.
Option 1
Walk from one of the most beautiful railway stations in the world to the first skyscraper in Europe and discover how the city created an atmosphere of grandeur, which reflects the importance of the European capital of trade, port, or diamonds. Together with your guide, pull down the 16th-century Spanish Walls and expand the city that Antwerp actually became. End the tour in Wall Street at the Schelde, once the financial area of this port city, thanks to the oldest trade fair in the world.
Option 2
Alternatively, walk from the castle 'het Steen', where it all started, to the citadel in the south of Antwerp. Discover how the city gradually sought new boundaries, making use of natural borders. Learn how this city developed its business relatively independently but had to deal with Dukes, Kings, and Emperors that restricted the freedom of religion and tolerance.
Option 3
Take the time to learn about and discover the biggest cathedral of the Netherlands (including Flanders and Brabant), a Gothic pearl of architecture, which, however, has suffered fire, iconoclasm, destruction, and restoration. And now it shines like never before. Of course, you will meet 3 of the most famous paintings of master Pietro Paul Rubens, painter, diplomat, and knight of the English King Charles the First. But learn as well about life in the Middle Ages in and around the cathedral.
Option 4
If you prefer a first introduction to the city of Antwerp and discover the main historical places, buildings, and stories, join the Historical History Tour.
Option 5
For those who want to get a critical view of what the cathedral of Antwerp is showing off, choose the 'The Cathedral 'mis'leads' Tour. The cathedral, an outstanding, almost perfect Gothic church in the heart of Antwerp... But is that really the case? The building, the artworks, the history, the stories... are subject to intentional or unintentional disruptions to the chronological coherence of the situations or events described. Sometimes these disruptions are of historical reality, of the biblical narratives, of the coloring of and by the passage of time... Are Rubens's parents-in-law buried in the cathedral? Did Godfrey of Bouillon found the Antwerp chapter? Did John, the beloved disciple, really lie on Jesus' right breast during the Last Supper... This will be a critical and humorous encounter with the blunders of history, art, or restoration.
