Antwerp: What to Do in the City
Antwerp rewards a slow two or three days on foot. The historic core runs about 1.5 to 2km from the Grote Markt up the Meir to Centraal Station, so most of what follows links together on a single walk. This is Flanders, so the working language is Dutch, English is spoken everywhere in the tourist core, and prices are in euros.
Start on the Grote Markt
The central square is free to wander and ringed by ornate guild houses and the 1564 Stadhuis. The Brabo Fountain (1887) tells the city’s founding legend: the giant Antigoon severed the hands of anyone who would not pay his Scheldt toll, until the Roman soldier Brabo cut off the giant’s own hand and threw it in the river. “Hand werpen” (hand-throwing) is the folk root of “Antwerpen,” and the same legend names the Antwerpse Handjes biscuit you will see in bakery windows.
See the real Rubens works
Skip the Rubenshuis this year. Rubens’ house and studio have been closed since January 2023 for renovation, and the historic rooms are not expected back before roughly 2030; only the garden, library and a stand-in “Rubens Experience” are open. His major altarpieces never left the Cathedral of Our Lady, and that is where to spend the hour. Entry is about EUR 12, and inside hang The Descent from the Cross and The Elevation of the Cross, still in the Gothic building they were painted for, under a single finished spire that runs 123m.
Climb the MAS for free
The Museum aan de Stroom sits on the old Eilandje docks north of the centre. The galleries cost roughly EUR 12, but the rooftop panorama is genuinely free: ride the escalators up the glass-and-sandstone tower for a 360-degree sweep over port, river and old town, better than Het Steen’s smaller riverside viewpoint. Het Steen itself, the city’s oldest building, has a free courtyard and rooftop, with a paid “Antwerp Story” exhibit at about EUR 7.
Walk the Diamond District and DIVA
The compact trade district near Centraal Station holds some 380 workshops and handles roughly 84% of the world’s rough-diamond trade. It is a working district, not a photo backdrop: keep a respectful distance, and note that much of it closes Saturdays and Jewish holidays. For the polished version, DIVA (about EUR 12, verify) tells the trading-hub story properly. Antwerp deals diamonds; it no longer cuts most of them, since the bulk of cutting happens in India today.
Fit in Plantin-Moretus, MoMu and Cogels-Osylei
Plantin-Moretus (about EUR 12, verify) is the only museum inscribed on UNESCO’s list in its own right, a preserved Renaissance printing house holding the world’s oldest presses. MoMu, the fashion museum, is open and running its “Antwerp Six” 40th-anniversary show through 17 January 2027. For a free detour, the Cogels-Osylei street in Zurenborg lines up 170 protected Art Nouveau facades with almost no crowds.
End with a bolleke
Order “een bolleke” at any ordinary cafe and you get De Koninck’s amber Spéciale Belge, Antwerp’s own beer since 1833, for roughly EUR 2.50 to 3.50. The self-guided brewery tour runs about EUR 16 to 20 with two tastings.
Read more: work these into a day-by-day plan with our Antwerp 2-day itinerary , or read the full Antwerp city guide for the short version.