I wanted to make the most of my seven hours in Antwerp so bought an Antwerp City Card. This allows free admission to 15 museums, discounts at others and free travel on the city's bus and tram network. The price is €27 for one day, €35 for two and €40 for three, so it's not for everyone, indeed a daytripper might struggle to get value. But I reckoned I could cram in enough visits to make it worthwhile, so bought my card on arrival at the Central station (at the top of the stairs), and what a lot of goodies they handed over.
The plastic card is dated by hand, and has to be scanned at each venue because you can only use it once. It comes with a sturdy book of vouchers, attractively branded, and a leaflet explaining where you can go for nothing and which stingyattractions will only offer 10% off. I was also given a free Visit Antwerp guide, recommended retail price €3, plus an almost-useful map of the city (which is free to anyone, just ask). I had my itinerary planned in advance, of course, because only a novice wastes the first hour of their €27 allocation ploughing through the paperwork. But good show, Antwerp, indeed everything about their marketing was sparkily professional.
Of all Antwerp's cultural accomplishments, its proudest boast is that the Baroque painter Peter Paul Rubens lived and worked here. Not only that but he thrived and became enormously wealthy, so was able to rebuild a Flemish townhouse in palazzo style on the banks of a canal, add a spacious studio and gardens, and generally lead a fabulous life. His home is now a walk-through gallery displaying his works and those of his Flemish contemporaries, as well as several of the Italian artists he admired so much. Pick up your ticket (and seriously good little guidebook) from the pavilion in the street outside. Try not to read the smallprint on page 2 which says the building was "fundamentally altered" in the mid 17th century after Rubens' death, because then you'll believe you're about to walk round his actual rooms, which alas you're not.
Expect a lot of wood panelling, a lot of doors to push open and a lot of art. Significant works of art are numbered, so you refer to your 80-page guide to see what it is, who it's by and a paragraph of information about it, which is a clever solution to gallery display in a country that speaks multiple languages. It takes until the second room for a painting actually painted by Rubens to appear, but you won't complain. In the chief ground floor gallery look out for number 19 - a Tintoretto altarpiece David Bowie liked so much that he bought it for his private collection back in the 1980s. The current owner wanted it displayed here, so many anonymous thanks.
Your wanderings bring you close to the outdoor portico, one of the few original structures to survive, and also into a lofty artist's studio hung with some of the larger works of art. Adam and Eve in oils confirms Rubens mastery of the skill of obscuring genitals with drooping foliage. The self portrait on the darkest wall is one of only four he painted. Enjoy the Breughel with monkeys dressed up as humans. And finally head out to the Italianate garden, which at the moment is a riot of mostly purples, to get some idea of just how contented Rubens must have been. Moved in 1610, passed on 1640, still marvellous 2019.
While we're doing Golden Age Antwerp, head to a small square by the river to find this unique museum. Christophe Plantin was a highly successful 16th century printer who made his name by publishing a single edition of the Bible in six languages. On his death the business passed to his son-in-law Jan Moretus who upheld these high standards and diversified further into scientific publishing. So integral was their printing to the Renaissance, and so well preserved the building, that Plantin-Moretus is now the sole museum on UNESCO's World Heritage List. It is a book lover's dream.
Unsurprisingly for a museum of this type you go round armed with a beautifully printed map, plus a thick guide book it's probably too dark to read before you have to give it back at the end. Once round the ground floor to explore the printworks and once round the upstairs to ogle the books. The wood panel count is satisfactorily high. The feeling that it might still be 400 years ago is ever present. A brief foray into the central courtyard garden is very pleasant. The temporary gallery is currently hung with Grotesques, in an exhibition which introduced me to the works of Hieronymous Cock. But I was unprepared to meet the world's two oldest printing presses in the long workshop, plus racks and racks of gorgeous metal type, the epitome of how things used to be.
The collection of books upstairs is comprehensive and extensive, from Latin classics to medical treatises and early Dutch dictionaries to arithmetical texts. The content and layout is invariably exquisite. Everything is viewed through the prism of the company's extensive history, for example when a new family member took over and prioritised the production of religious material. But what really comes across is the explosion in learning as knowledge was suddenly made cheaply and readily available, with parallels today to the rise of the internet. It made those in power nervous then and it does the same today. The Plantin-Moretus is a museum which stays with you. And bring a €2 coin for the lockers.
You can't miss De Kathedraal, its soaring tower being one of the few tall buildings on the city skyline. The original intention was for there to be two towers, but one was put on hold in 1521 when the building was consecrated and construction's been on hold ever since. Sorry about the scaffolding, but they're restoring the stonework and repainting the clock, which is also why you won't be hearing the carillon again until the end of next year. At least they haven't started on the interior yet so that's still stunning, as befits a major cathedral at the crossroads of northern Europe.
The people of Antwerp are in thrall to the Virgin Mary, not only dedicating their cathedral to her but also placing several shrines to her on street corners. That's her on the altarpiece, which was painted by Rubens, and three of his other masterpieces hang elsewhere. Further old masters are slotted into the gaps between the pillars in the nave where the city's guilds once had their own individual altars. The carved wooden pulpit is amazing, a huge structure resembling a forest scene, but was actually shipped in from an abbey elsewhere. Enjoy the stained glass. Always look up.
Unsurprisingly the cathedral sits in the oldest part of town, surrounded by twisting cobbled lanes, tourist-friendly waffle cafes and countless tablefuls of lager-filled chalices. The densest concentration of tall thin Dutch townhouses is around the Grote Markt, which doesn't look at its most picturesque with the Town Hall under wraps, the cathedral tower sheathed Big-Ben-style and truckloads of workmen setting up a stage for this weekend's music festival. The only building to almost match the cathedral in height is the Boerentoren, widely recognised as Europe's first skyscraper and home to the KBC bank since 1932, but alas the public's no longer allowed to the top of that.
Two museums and one cathedral down, and my Antwerp City Card has saved me entrance fees totalling €24. Throw in that tram journey under the Scheldt and my running total is exactly €27, so I've broken even on my investment. Everything on top of this is profit. Further reports tomorrow.
