9/21/21: Antwerp's Scarlet A!

Just a few streets from our apartment, really a room with a tiny kitchenette, was Antwerp’s main square, Grote Markt. It was dominated by the stately Stadhuis or City Hall that dated from the 16th century, Antwerp’s Golden Age. Its flags represented the importance of international trade to the city. Adorning the central tower were the golden coats-of-arms from the great medieval powers that helped shaped the city. 

Just as in Brussels’ Grand Place, guild houses celebrating each of the city’s industries’ trade associations fronted the square. Locals are fond of saying that they know summer has finally arrived when the café terraces have opened up below the guild houses.

It was fun picking out the golden statues which generally represented the guild’s patron saint - the man on a rearing horse, a cat, and a man who looked like he was suffering from a migraine!

Because some of these had been rebuilt from the 19th-century Romantic era, I'll be the first to admit they were a tad over the top!

The gruesome statue in the middle of the square referred to a Flemish folklore tale in which a giant, Druon Antigoon, collected tolls along the Scheldt River and severing a hand for those who didn't pay! A brave young Roman soldier, Silvius Brabo, finally defeated Antigoon and cut off his hand. The fountain showed Brabo about to throw Antigoon’s bloody hand in the river. Because of the sun’s angle, you’re probably relieved I wasn’t able to get a clear photo of the giant’s bloody stump from the rear of the statue!

Just beyond the square was Suikerrui, a street that had formerly been a canal. The bike shirts celebrated the huge professional bike race from Antwerp to Bruges the following day.

The DIVA museum was devoted to the city’s diamond industry - don't you just love that name!

The building with the big green statues was the former Hansahuis where the German traders' guild had their regional headquarters. 

I wondered if Belgians had a 'thing' for ferris wheels as this was the second we'd seen in three days - the other had been in Brussels. We climbed a steep ramp to get a view of the Scheldt River the flowed northward to the North Sea. Back in Roman times, the city's location was ideal for river trade to and from the interior and oceangoing trade. 

During the city's Golden Age, more than one hundred ships per day carried goods from all over the world on the Scheldt and the city was completely cosmopolitan, full of traders from across the globe. But, when the Spanish gained control of Antwerp in 1585 and the river trade was dominated by the Dutch, Antwerp went into a steep decline. The situation was only reversed in the 19th-century when Belgium gained independence and sea trade was restored.

If it hadn't been for the cranes in the distance, I would have been hard-pressed to realize that Antwerp is Europe's second-largest port. Unlike many cities, Antwerp had done nothing yet to beautify its original riverfront which was a shame.

Along the riverfront was an empty castle, Antwerp's oldest building with parts dating from the 800s that had once been part of the city walls that had fortified the city center.

I was glad that this statue of a giant by the castle was only intimidating two poor traders and wasn't cutting off their hands at least!

The waist-high retaining wall protected the city when or if the Scheldt floods, a greater possibility now with rising sea levels.

The orange steel doors connecting the concrete retaining wall can open or close as necessary. Antwerp's long-term hope is to revitalize its riverfront and build dikes to control flooding.

The steel canopies by the riverfront were former warehouses, now just used for parking.

Don't forget that as with any of the blog posts you can simply click on a photo to make it larger so you can see it in greater detail. It's worth doing for this one to see the pretty detail on the facade of the Amadeus rib restaurant on the corner of the Sint-Paulusplaats or St. Paul Square.

This used to be a medieval harbor, then a sailors' area with red lights in the windows but now it was home to trendy restaurants and attractive cafes. 

However, just beyond the square was the beginning of the city's Red Light District, the country's biggest center of legalized prostitution with sex shops, peep shows, and 'ladies of the night' making themselves very visible in the street-level windows. The belief is that legalizing the sex trade and confining it to this area makes it safer for the workers and the populace at large. 

In the 19th century, the district was notorious in certain quarters throughout the world. Having also walked through Amsterdam's pretty glitzy Red Light District with its many upscale bars, Antwerp's gave me the willies by comparison. Whether part of that was the timing as it was only late morning compared to nighttime when we had been in Amsterdam's, I don't know.

I perceived an air of quiet desperation in the furtive glances the men walking or cycling past slowly gave to the scantily clad 'window dressers' but that may well have been my own bias. As ignorant as I was, I would never have known apparently a third of the 'girls' were actually men. 

Near the end of the district was Villa Tinto designed by artist Arne Quinze as a state-of-the-art brothel with ladies in windows. With panic buttons and a police station directly in the alley, the prostitutes could count on immediate assistance instead of pimps when emrgencies arise.

From the sleaze of the district, it felt like a wave of fresh air coming out onto Falconplein, a now-pleasant square (plein is Dutch for square) that used to be known as Red Square for its Russian mafia-style thugs according to Rick Steves!

The red light district had been a detour to our final stop, Antwerp's old dockyards and industrial port that had been revitalized into a very attractive area. It was hard to think that just a couple of minutes' walk away was such a seedy area as the brick buildings and shops looked so elegant. In the early 1800s, Napoleon had built this port and helped it become the first Industrial Age harbor in the world. After the city's shipping industry relocated further north in the mid-20th century, the city gentrified this prime real estate. 

Dominating the skyline was an eye-catching, 200-ft. tall tower of hand-cut red stone that housed the Museum on the River or MAS. When Steves said it was designed to appear like spiraling stacks of goods in an old maritime warehouse, it immediately made perfect sense as I wouldn't have figured that out otherwise.

Once we got fairly close, we were able to pick out the silver hands spaced at intervals on the exterior that were the symbol of Antwerp.

As Steven was coming down with a cold, he decided to rest in the sunny square while I took a spiral route of ten escalators from the square up to the top of the tower. Every story of the tower had been rotated a quarter turn, creating a gigantic spiral staircase. On each level, a different facet of the city's history, its harbor, and its inhabitants was told in the museum. I wasn't particularly interested nor, more importantly, did I want to take the time away from Steven to visit the museum. 

Some views on the way up:

Once I finally reached the top floor, there were exceptional views from the panoramic terrace. The only thing missing for me were signs indicating what were the main sights from each perspective to give visitors an idea of what we were looking at.

The burger joint far below on the square had some brilliant marketing on its canopy: Hungry After Climbing MAS?!

Another attention-grabbing view from the top!

And, from our walk back to our room, some unusual images:

Hope this bulldog statue attired in red, yellow, and black will help you remember the colors of the Belgian flag!

Here was the exterior shot of the Cathedral of Our Lady I was looking to include in my previous post!

I couldn't resist taking a shot of the Frithot Max shop as it made me think of our sweet 16-month-old granddaughter, Max, in San Francisco. The Belgians take their fries very, very seriously so there are fries shops like this in many places in each of the four cities we have toured in Belgium. Older Belgians like their fries with a thick mayonnaise-like sauce poured all over them! During WWI when the Americans were in the Flanders region of Belgium, they actually thought they were in France as it was so close and thus coined the term 'French fries.' I'm not sure the Belgians have ever forgiven the Americans for that slight!

More of the ... statues!

Next post: A stop later that afternoon at Museum Plantin-Moretus, which described the history of printing and was one of the most captivating single-themed museums we've visited anywhere.

Posted on September 27th, 2021, from Frankfurt, Germany although I must admit we'd dearly hoped this would have been our first of four days in Luxembourg. But, as we knew already in the era of Covid, what countries or sights remain open can change on a dime so we have to be even more flexible than in the past to make changes in our itinerary and also more attuned to breaking news.