Antwerp

General Summary

Antwerp, the second biggest city in Belgium and also one of the biggest ports in Europe, is the capital of the province of the same name. As well as being at the forefront of the diamond industry, it’s also well known as one of the most up-and-coming fashion design centres in Europe.

The city’s name is thought to derive from ‘aanwerp’, meaning a mound of sediment in a river, site of the earliest settlement in the area. From as early as the seventh century BC there were fortifications here. In the Middle Ages, the city became a provincial outpost of the Holy Roman Empire, and as a result of its prime coastal location, Antwerp was, by the 14th century, a major European merchant city with wool as its major trade.

However, its golden age ended when the conflict of the Reformation led the city towards economic decline. Until the 17th century, though, it still enjoyed a cultural boom, spearheaded by artists such as Rubens and Van Dyck.

Despite the mass plundering and destruction of cultural and artistic treasures that took place under French rule in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the city does have Napoleon to thank for the continued success of its seaport. With its close proximity to England, he understood its strategic importance and began a programme of modernisation that has seen the city survive and prosper into the 21st century as a major international port.