A city of northern Belgium on the Scheldt River north of Brussels. One of Europe's busiest ports, it has been a center of the diamond industry since the 15th century. The first stock exchange was founded here in 1460. Population: 466,000.
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Antwerp
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Antwerp,
Du. Antwerpen, Fr. Anvers, city (1991 pop. 467,518), capital of Antwerp prov., N Belgium, on the Scheldt River. It is one of the busiest ports in Europe; a commercial, industrial, and financial center; and a rail junction. The city is linked with industrial E Belgium (especially Liège) by the Albert Canal and has a large transit trade to and from Germany (especially the Ruhr district). Manufactures of Antwerp and its surrounding region include refined petroleum, petrochemicals, dyes, photographic supplies, motor vehicles, leather goods, and processed food. In addition, the city is a major international center of the diamond trade, has large shipyards, and is the seat of the world's first stock exchange (founded 1460).
The artistic fame of Antwerp dates from the rule (15th cent.) of Philip the Good of Burgundy, who founded an academy of painting. The painters Quentin Massys and Peter Paul Rubens resided in the city, and Anthony Van Dyck was born there. Many of their works are in the museums and churches of Antwerp. Christophe Plantin made (16th cent.) the city a center of printing; his house is a museum.
Among Antwerp's many splendid structures are the large Gothic Cathedral of Notre Dame (14th–16th cent.), with a spire c.400 ft (122 m) high; the churches of St. James (containing the tomb of Rubens) and St. Paul (both 16th cent.); the Renaissance-style city hall (mid-16th cent.); Rubens's house (now a museum); and old guildhalls lining the Groote Markt [marketplace]. Antwerp also has a zoological garden and a noted school of music.
History
Antwerp was a small trading center by the early 8th cent. It was destroyed by the Normans in 836, but by the 11th cent. it was a fairly important port. The city was chartered in 1291. Antwerp was held (13th to mid-14th cent.) by Brabant and then became an early seat of the counts of Flanders. In the 15th cent. it rose to prominence as Bruges and Ghent declined. In 1446 the English Merchant Adventurers and other traders motivated port trade by moving their operations from Bruges to Antwerp. By the middle of the 16th cent. Antwerp was Europe's chief commercial and financial center. The diamond industry, established in the 15th cent., had expanded considerably after the arrival (early 16th cent.) of Jewish artisans expelled from Portugal. The city's prosperity suffered in 1576, when it was sacked and about 6,000 of its inhabitants killed by Spanish troops (the “Spanish fury”), and again in 1584–85, when the city was captured by the Spanish under Alessandro of Farnese after a 14-month siege.
Under the Peace of Westphalia (1648), the Scheldt was closed to navigation (as a means of favoring Amsterdam), and Antwerp declined rapidly. The city revived with the opening of the Scheldt by the French in 1795 and with the expansion of its port facilities by Napoleon I. The incorporation (1815) of Belgium into the Netherlands again hindered Antwerp's economic development, a situation that was continued by the Dutch-Belgian treaty of separation (1839), which gave the Netherlands the right to collect tolls on Scheldt shipping. The expansion of Antwerp as a major modern port dates only from 1863, when, by a cash payment, Belgium ended Dutch restrictions on traffic on the Scheldt. Antwerp was seriously damaged in World War I when it was captured (Oct., 1914) by the Germans after a 12-day siege. In World War II it was again taken (May, 1940) by the Germans, who bombarded it heavily after it had been recaptured (Sept., 1944) by the Allies.
History 1450-1789:
Antwerp
Few early modern cities experienced such profound changes as Antwerp. The city on the River Scheldt was transformed from a sixteenth-century commercial metropolis to a small town of only regional importance by the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In the same period, Antwerp changed from an open cosmopolitan city with strong Protestant influences into a bulwark of the Catholic Reformation.
In the first half of the sixteenth century, the Low Countries were fully integrated into the vast Habsburg empire and the international economy. Antwerp profited greatly from this situation, experiencing unparalleled economic and population growth. Its commercial expansion was based on the convergence of important international trade in English cloth, Portuguese spices, and South German copper and silver. Although this "foreign" under-pinning made the Antwerp world market vulnerable, by the mid-sixteenth century the indigenous Antwerp merchants had gained considerable influence. Commercial expansion stimulated existing industries and attracted new ones. In addition, art production boomed, and many printers, publishers, and booksellers—there were at least 271 in the sixteenth century—traded on the international market. The city also experienced extraordinary demographic growth. The Antwerp population more than doubled within half a century, from around 40,000 in 1496 to 100,000 in 1566. A small mercantile elite owned an overwhelming percentage of the city's wealth, reflecting a social polarization during Antwerp's golden age. Nevertheless, there are strong indications for the existence of a broad urban middle class that profited from the booming economy, socially and culturally. Among other things, this new middle class benefited from Antwerp's well-developed and highly laicized educational system, which included schools for both boys and girls.
The new religious ideas that divided sixteenth-century Europe easily penetrated Antwerp's cosmopolitan community, and the city became a center of Protestantism in the Netherlands. An eclectic evangelical movement in the 1520s and 1530s gave way to Anabaptist and Calvinist communities in the 1550s. For economic reasons, the Antwerp city magistrate (the main political body of the city) cautiously adopted the central heresy placards (legislation to counteract and punish the Protestants), focusing their repression on the poorer Anabaptists. From the 1560s onwards, the fortunes of Protestantism were closely linked with political resistance to central government policy. In 1566, Calvinists and Lutherans were allowed to organize a church; the Calvinist leaders even tried to seize power. The arrival of the duke of Alba in the summer of 1567 ushered in a period of severe repression. The Antwerp city government was put under custody and rebels and heretics were systematically prosecuted. Alba's policy, and the fortunes of war in general, were detrimental to the vulnerable Antwerp metropolis. Anti-Spanish sentiment flourished after the "Spanish Fury," which began on 4 November 1576. Spanish soldiers ransacked the city and killed about 8,000 people. From 1577 onwards, the Antwerp city government supported the politics of William of Orange (William the Silent) and the rebellious States-General. In 1579, the Calvinists gained control of the city administration, two years later proscribing the public exercise of the Catholic religion. Antwerp became a Protestant stronghold of international importance and a backbone of the Dutch Revolt.
The year 1585 was a watershed in Antwerp's history. In August of that year, following a long and brutal siege, the Antwerp city fathers were forced to surrender to Alexander Farnese, duke of Parma, and his Spanish troops. Many people fled the city for religious, political, or economic reasons. In four years, the population halved, falling to only 42,000 inhabitants by 1589. Among the emigrants were merchants, artists, intellectuals, and skilled craftsmen who contributed significantly to the economy and culture of their new homelands, especially the towns in Holland and Zeeland. After 1585, ecclesiastical and civil authorities closely collaborated to build up a new Catholic Church. New religious orders, such as the Jesuits, played a key role in this process of Catholic Reformation, which possessed a clear anti-Protestant stamp.
After a severe crisis in the late 1580s and 1590s, the Antwerp economy experienced an Indian summer. The closure of the Scheldt to navigation after 1585 notwithstanding, the resourceful Antwerp merchants managed to integrate the city into the Iberian trade system. A number of luxury industries recovered, and art production profited highly from the strong demand created by the construction and redecoration of churches. Artists such as Peter Paul Rubens turned Antwerp into an international center of baroque art. Yet, in the second half of the seventeenth and even more in the first half of the eighteenth century, the Antwerp economy declined. The closure of the Scheldt was confirmed by the Peace of Westphalia (1648), and the position of the port was further wounded by the mercantilist measures of the mighty European states. Furthermore, shifts within the economy of the Southern Netherlands were unfavorable for Antwerp and transformed the once thriving city into a provincial town.
Bibliography
Marnef, Guido. Antwerp in the Age of Reformation: Underground Protestantism in a Commercial Metropolis, 1550–1577. Translated by J. C. Grayson. Baltimore and London, 1996. Includes lengthy introduction on urban society in sixteenth-century Antwerp.
Soly, Hugo. "Continuity and Change: Attitudes towards Poor Relief and Health in Early Modern Antwerp." In Health Care and Poor Relief in Protestant Europe 1500–1700, edited by Ole Peter Grell and Andrew Cunningham, pp. 84–107. London and New York, 1997.
Van der Stock, Jan, ed. Antwerp: Story of a Metropolis, 16th–17th Century. Antwerp and Ghent, 1993. Collection of articles written by leading scholars.
—GUIDO MARNEF
Weather:
Antwerpe (anvers), Belgium
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Dialing Code:
The telephone dialing code for: Antwerp, Belgium
The country code is: 32
The city code is: 3
Wikipedia:
Antwerp
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.svg)
Antwerp (Dutch: 
Antwerpen?, French:
Anvers) is a city and municipality in Belgium and the capital of the Antwerp province in Flanders, one of Belgium's three regions.
Antwerp's total population is ca. 461,496 (as of January 2006) and its total area is 204.51 km² with a population density of
2,257 inhabitants per km².
Antwerp has long been an important city in the nations of the Benelux both economically and culturally. It is located on the right bank of the river Scheldt, which is linked to the North Sea by the Westerschelde. Antwerp's seaport, one of the world's largest and after the port of Rotterdam the second largest in Europe, has a high level of cargo shipping and oil refineries traffic. Families of the large Hasidic Jewish community have traditionally controlled Antwerp's global centre of the diamond trading industry, although the last two decades have seen Indian and Armenian traders become increasingly important.
History
Origin of name
According to folklore, and as celebrated by the statue in front of the town hall, the city got its name from a legend involving a mythical giant called Antigoon that lived near the river Scheldt, exacting a toll from those crossing the river. On refusal, the giant severed one of their hands and threw them into the Scheldt. Eventually, the giant was slain by a young hero named Brabo, who cut off the giant's hand and threw it into the river. Hence the name Antwerpen from Dutch hand werpen (akin to Old English hand and wearpan (= to throw), that has changed to today's warp).[1]
To support this folkloric derivation, it is pointed out that hand-cutting was practised in Europe, when the right hand of a man who died without heir was cut off and sent to the feudal lord as proof of main-morte. However, Motley argues that Antwerp's name derives from an 't werf (on the wharf).[2]
The currently most prevailing theory is that the name originated in the Gallo-Roman period and comes from the Latin antverpia. Antverpia would come from Ante(against) Verpia(deposition, sedimentation), indicating the land that forms by depossition in the inner curb of a river. Note that the river Scheldt, before a transition period between the years 600 to 750, followed a different track. This must have coincided roughly with the current ringway south of the city, situating the city indeed in an inner curb of the river.[3] The name was reputed to have been derived from "anda" (at) and "werpum" (wharf).[2]
The Merovingian Antwerp, now fortified, was evangelized by Saint Amand in the seventh century. At the end of the tenth century, the Scheldt became the boundary of the Holy Roman Empire. Antwerp became a margraviate, a border province facing the County of Flanders. In the eleventh century Godfrey of Bouillon was for some years best known as marquis of Antwerp. In the 12th century, Norbert of Xanten established a community of his Premonstratensian canons at St. Michael’s Abbey at Caloes. Antwerp was the headquarters of Edward III during his early negotiations with Jacob van Artevelde, and his son Lionel, the earl of Cambridge, was born there in 1338.
16th century
After the closing of the Zwin and the consequent decline of Bruges, the city of Antwerp, then part of the Duchy of Brabant, became of importance. At the end of the 15th century the foreign trading houses were transferred from Bruges to Antwerp, and the building assigned to the English nation is specifically mentioned in 1510.
Fernand Braudel states that Antwerp became "the center of the entire international economy—something Bruges had never been even at its height." (Braudel 1985 p. 143.) Antwerp's "Golden Age" is tightly linked to the "Age of Exploration". Over the first half of the 16th century Antwerp grew to become the second largest European city north of the Alps by 1560. Many foreign merchants were resident in the city. Guicciardini, the Venetian envoy, stated that hundreds of ships would pass in a day, and 2000 carts entered the city each week. Portuguese ships laden with pepper and cinnamon would unload their cargo.
Without a long-distance merchant fleet, and governed by an oligarchy of banker-aristocrats forbidden to engage in trade, the economy of Antwerp was foreigner-controlled, which made the city very international, with merchants and traders from Venice, Ragusa, Spain and Portugal. Antwerp had a policy of toleration, which attracted a large orthodox Jewish community. Antwerp was not a "free" city though, since it had been reabsorbed into the duchy of Brabant in 1406 and was controlled from Brussels.
Antwerp experienced three booms during its century, the first based on the pepper market, a second launched by American silver coming from Seville (ending with the bankruptcy of Spain in 1557), and a third boom, after the stabilising Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis, in 1559, based on the textiles industry. The boom-and-bust cycles and inflationary cost-of-living squeezed less-skilled workers.
The religious revolution of the Reformation erupted in violent riots in August 1566, as in other parts of the Netherlands. The regent Margaret, duchess of Parma was swept aside when Philip II sent the Duke of Alba at the head of an army the following summer. When the Eighty Years' War broke out in 1572, commercial trading between Antwerp and the Spanish port of Bilbao was not possible. On November 4, 1576, the Spanish soldiers plundered the city. During the Spanish Fury 6000 citizens were massacred, 800 houses were burnt down, and over two millions sterling of damage was done.
Antwerp became the capital of the Dutch revolt. In 1585, Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma and Piacenza captured it after a long siege and sent its Protestant citizens into exile. Antwerp's banking was controlled for a generation by Genoa and Amsterdam became the new trading centre.
17th-19th centuries
The recognition of the independence of the United Provinces by the Treaty of Munster in 1648 stipulated that the Scheldt should be closed to navigation, which destroyed Antwerp's trading activities. This impediment remained in force until 1863, although the provisions were relaxed during French rule from 1795 to 1814, and also during the time Belgium formed part of the kingdom of the Netherlands (1815 to 1830). Antwerp had reached the lowest point of its fortunes in 1800, and its population had sunk under 40,000, when Napoleon, realizing its strategic importance, assigned two millions for the construction of two docks and a mole. In 1830, the city was captured by the Belgian insurgents, but the citadel continued to be held by a Dutch garrison under General David Hendrik Chassé. For a time this officer subjected the town to a periodic bombardment which inflicted much damage, and at the end of 1832 the citadel itself was besieged by a French army. During this attack the town was further injured. In December 1832, after a gallant defence, Chassé made an honourable surrender.
20th century
Antwerp was the first city to host the World Gymnastics Championships, in 1903. During World War I, the city became the fallback point of the Belgian Army after the defeat at Liège. It was taken after heavy fighting by the German Army, and the Belgians were forced to retreat westward.
Antwerp hosted the 1920 Summer Olympics. During World War II the city was occupied by Germany in May 1940 and was liberated when the British 11th Armoured Division entered the city on September 4, 1944. After this, the Germans attempted to destroy the Port of Antwerp, which was used by the Allies to bring new material ashore. Thousands of V-1 and V-2 missiles battered the city. The city was hit by more V-2s than any other target during the entire war, but the attack did not succeed in destroying the port since many of the missiles fell upon other parts of the city. As a result, the city itself was severely damaged and rebuilt after the war in a modern style. After the war, Antwerp, which had already had a sizable Jewish population before the war, once again became a major European center of Haredi (and particularly Hasidic) Orthodox Judaism.
Municipality
The municipality comprises the city of Antwerp proper and several towns. It's divided into nine entities (districts):
- Antwerp (district)
- Berchem
- Berendrecht-Zandvliet-Lillo
- Borgerhout
- Deurne
- Ekeren
- Hoboken
- Merksem
- Wilrijk
Historical population
This is the population of the city of Antwerp only, not of the larger current municipality of the same name.
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Buildings and facilities
In the 16th century, Antwerp was noted for the wealth of its citizens ("Antwerpia nummis"); the houses of these wealthy merchants and manufacturers have been preserved throughout the city. However fire has destroyed several old buildings, such as the house of the Hanseatic League on the northern quays in 1891. The city also suffered considerable war damage by V-bombs, and in recent years other noteworthy buildings were demolished for new developments.
- The Antwerp Zoo was founded in 1843, and home to more than 4,000 animals
- Central Station is a railway station designed by Louis Delacenserie that was completed in 1905. It has two monumental neo-baroque facades, a large metal and glass dome (60m/197ft) and a gilt and marble interior
- Cathedral of Our Lady. This church was begun in the 14th century and finished in 1518. The church has three works by Rubens, viz. "The Descent from the Cross", "The Elevation of the Cross" and "The Assumption"
- The church, named for St James, is more ornate than the cathedral. It contains the tomb of Rubens
- The church of St Paul, has a beautiful baroque interior. It is a few hundred yards north of the Grote Markt
- The Plantin-Moretus Museum preserves the house of the printer Christoffel Plantijn and his successor Jan Moretus
- The Boerentoren (Farmers' Tower) or KBC Tower, a 26-storey building built in 1932, is the oldest skyscraper in Europe[13]
- The Royal Museum of Fine Arts, close to the southern quays, has a collection of old masters (Rubens, Van Dyck, Titian) and the leading Dutch masters
- The law courts, designed by the Richard Rogers Partnership, Arup and VK Studio, and opened by King Albert in April 2006. This building is the antithesis of the heavy, dark court building designed by Joseph Poelaert that dominates the skyline of Brussels. The courtrooms sit on top of six fingers that radiate from an airy central hall, and are surmounted by spires which provide north light and resemble oast houses or the sails of barges on the nearby River Scheldt. It is built on the site of the old Zuid ("South") station, at the end of a magnificent 1.5 km perspective at the southern end of Amerikalei. The road neatly disappears into an underpass under oval Bolivarplaats to join the motorway ring. This leaves peaceful surface access by foot, bicycle or tram (routes 8 & 12). The building's highest 'sail' is 51 m high, has a floor area of 77,000 m²,and cost €130m.
Commerce
In 1863, Antwerp was opened again to international trade by the purchase of the Dutch right to levy tolls. Eight principal basins or docks already existed in 1908. With the completion of the new maritime lock, ships drawing 30 feet of water would be able to enter these new docks and also the Lefebvre and America docks. The quays flanking the Scheldt are 3-½ miles in length, constructed of granite. The exchange or Bourse, one of the early institutions in Europe with that title, was built in 1872.
Transportation
Road
Highways lead to Brussels, Hasselt, Liège, Breda (Netherlands), Ghent and Bruges. They are led around the city by the Ring. Both banks of the Scheldt are connected to each other by 3 tunnels; the oldest of which is the Waasland tunnel (1934). On the Ring the Kennedy tunnel connects the left with the right bank and in the North, between the docks in the port, there is the Liefkenshoek tunnel. Currently a fourth car tunnel is being planned on the northern part of the Ring which should be completed in 2012.
Rail
Antwerp has two main stations: Central and Berchem. Central Station (1905) is a monument in itself. As Central Station is the end of a spur, many through trains stop at Berchem Station only. From Berchem Station international trains go to Amsterdam, Paris and Lille, and national trains go directly to Ghent, Bruges, Ostend, Brussels, Charleroi, Hasselt, Liège and Turnhout. A through underground connection under Central Station to the North is completed and allows international high-speed trains (Brussels-Amsterdam) to call at Central Station without reversing.
City transportation
The city has a web of tram and bus lines operated by De Lijn and providing access to the city centre, suburbs and the Left Bank. The tram network has 11 lines, of which the underground section is called the "premetro" and includes a tunnel under the river.
Air
Antwerp International Airport is located in the district of Deurne. VLM Airlines flies to London (City Airport) and Manchester in England. VLM is the only airline with scheduled air services to and from Antwerp International Airport. The airport is connected by bus to the city center.
Fortifications
Although Antwerp was formerly a fortified city, nothing remains of the former enceinte or of the old citadel defended by General Chassé in 1832, except for the Steen, which has been restored. Modern Antwerp's broad avenues mark the position of the original fortifications. After the establishment of Belgian independence, Antwerp was defended by the citadel and an enceinte around the city. In 1859, seventeen of the twenty-two fortresses constructed under Wellington's supervision in 1815-1818 were dismantled and the old citadel and enceinte were removed. A new enceinte 8 miles long was constructed, and the villages of Berchem and Borgerhout, now parishes of Antwerp, were absorbed within the city.
This enceinte is protected by a broad wet ditch, and in the caponiers are the magazines and store chambers of the fortress. The enceinte has nineteen openings or gateways, but of these seven are not used by the public. As soon as the enceinte was finished eight detached forts from 2 to 2-½ miles from the enceinte were constructed. They begin on the north near Wijnegem and the zone of inundation, and terminate on the south at Hoboken. In 1870 Fort Merksem and the redoubts of Berendrecht and Oorderen were built for the defence of the area to be inundated north of Antwerp.
In the 1870s, the fortifications of Antwerp were deemed to be out of date, given the increased range and power of artillery and explosives. Antwerp was transformed into a fortified position by constructing an outer line of forts and batteries 6 to 9 miles from the enceinte.
Culture
Antwerp had an artistic reputation in the 17th century, based on its school of painting, which included Rubens, Van Dyck, Jordaens, the two Teniers and many others. Informally, most Antverpians (in Dutch Antwerpenaren, people from Antwerp) daily speak Antverpian, a dialect that Dutch-speakers know as distinctive from other Brabantic dialects through its typical vowel pronunciations: approximating the vowel sound in 'bore'— for one of its 'a'-sounds while other 'a's are very sharp. The Echt Antwaarps Teater ('Authentic Antverpian Theatre') brings the dialect on stage.
Fashion
Antwerp is a rising fashion city, and has produced some famous designers such as the Antwerp Six. The city has a rather a cult status in the fashion world, largely due to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, one of the most important fashion academies in Europe. It has served as the learning centre for a large number of well-known Belgian fashion designers.
Miscellaneous
The major football clubs are K.F.C. Germinal Beerschot and R. Antwerp F.C.. Since the 1980s, several graduates of the Belgian Royal Academy of Fine Arts have become internationally successful fashion designers in Antwerp. Antwerp hosted the 50th anniversary celebrations of The Tall Ships' Races in the summer of 2006. Antwerp was the opening city in the Guy Ritchie movie, Snatch. It is where the 86 carat (17.2 g) diamond is first stolen from.
Orthodox Jewish population
After the Holocaust, Antwerp once again became a major center for Orthodox Jews. At present, about 20,000 Haredi Jews, mostly Hasidic, live in Antwerp. They have an extensive network of synagogues, shops, schools and organizations, within the Machsike Hadas community. Significant Hasidic movements in Antwerp include Pshevorsk, based in Antwerp, as well as branches of Satmar, Belz, Bobov, Ger, Skver, Klausenburg, Lubavitch and several others. Rabbi Chaim Kreiswirth, chief rabbi of the Machsike Hadas community, who died in 2003, was arguably one of the better known personalities to have been based in Antwerp, though attempts to have a street named after him were not successful.
Missions to seafarers
A number of Christian missions to seafarers are based in Antwerp, notably on the Italiëlei. These include the
Sister cities
The following places are sister cities to Antwerp:
Mulhouse, France, 1954
Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 1958
Rostock, Germany,1963
Shanghai, China, 1984
Akhisar, Turkey, 1988
Haifa,
Israel, 1995
Cape Town, South Africa, 1996
Barcelona, Spain, 1997- Ludwigshafen, Germany, 1998
Within the context of development cooperation, Antwerp is also linked to:
Notable people from Antwerp
Born in Antwerp
- Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence, son of Edward III of England (1338-1368)
- Frans Floris, painter (1520-1570)
- Abraham Ortelius, cartographer and geographer (1527-1598)
- Gillis van Coninxloo, painter of forest landscapes (1544-1607)
- Bartholomeus Spranger, painter, draughtsman, and etcher (1546-1611)
- Paul and Mattheus Brill, landscape painters (1554-1626, 1550-1583, resp.)
- Abraham Janssens, painter (c. 1570-1632)
- Rodrigo Calderón, Count of Oliva, Spanish favourite and adventurer (d. 1621)
Frans Snyders , still life and animal painter (1579-1657)- Frans Hals, painter (1580-1666)
- Caspar de Crayer, painter (1582-1669)
- David Teniers the Elder, painter (1582-1649)
- Jacob Jordaens, painter (1593-1678)
- Anthony van Dyck, painter (1599-1641)
- David Teniers the Younger, painter (1610-1690)
- Jan Fyt, animal painter (1611-1661)
- Nicolaes Maes, Baroque painter (1634-1693)
- Gerard Edelinck, copper-plate engraver (1649-1707)
- John Michael Rysbrack, sculptor (1694-1770)
- Hendrik Conscience, writer and author of De Leeuw van Vlaanderen (“The Lion of Flanders”) (1812-1883)
- Georges Eekhoud, novelist (1854-1927)
- Hippolyte Delehaye, Jesuit Priest and hagiographic scholar (1859-1941)
- Willem Elsschot, writer and poet (1882-1960)
- Constant Permeke, expressionist painter (1886-1952)
- Paul van Ostaijen, poet and writer (1896-1928)
- Albert Lilar, Minister of Justice (1900-1976)
- Maurice Gilliams, writer (1900-1982)
- Evi Goffin, vocalist (1981- )
- Jessica Van Der Steen, Model (1984 -)
Lived in Antwerp
- Quentin Matsys, Renaissance painter, founder of the Antwerp school (1466-1530)
- Jan Mabuse, painter (c. 1478-1532)
- Joachim Patinir, landscape and religious painter (c. 1480-1524)
- John Rogers, minister of religion, Bible translator and commentator, and martyr (c. 1500-1555)
- Joos van Cleve, painter (c. 1500-1540/41)
- Damião de Góis, Portuguese humanist philosopher (1502-1574)
- Sir Thomas Gresham, English merchant and financier (c. 1519-1579)
- Sir Anthony More,