Antwerp, Flanders, Belgium
When you go to Rome you have to go to the churches, many of
which are architecturally and artistically impressive. As a center of the
northern Baroque art Antwerp is rather similar and puts out a good brochure of
a walking tour taking in the main highlights.
The most important of these is Antwerp Cathedral in the
heart of the city which has the tallest church spire in the low countries.
Apparently, the spire is sometimes open for visits but looks like it would be
very scary since it’s so skinny, not something that can well accommodate much
of a crowd of visitors. I went to the cathedral back in 2002. Being February I
think I was about the only visitor. I chose to go on the tour and was the only
person on the English language version of it for a very thorough private tour
with an elderly English lady. I remember
best her explaining how the “stinking rich” got their names. Buried under
stones in the cathedral, the decomposing bodies of the dead wealthy could create
quite a stench.
With the KMSKA (Koninglijk Museum voor Schoone Kunst
Antwerp) closed for renovation, many of the museum’s art works are currently
displayed in Antwerp’s churches, especially in the cathedral. The appeal of
that is that there rather more “in situ” in the type of environment they were
intended for, even if the lighting isn’t as good as in modern museums. Normally
the cathedral’s best-known resident painting is Rubens’ “Descent from the
Cross”.
While the artwork and interior decorations in many of
Antwerp’s main churches is baroque, the buildings themselves were mostly
constructed earlier in the Gothic style – true of Sint Jakobs, Sint Paul’s, and
Sint Andries as well as the cathedral. The main exception if Sint Charles
Borromeo church which is as thoroughly baroque in everything from its façade to
its side chapels as anything you’d see in Rome.
2025-05-22