A round of the Avenues may best be made in an open tram. The northern portion, leading from the Entrepôt and the Goods Station as far as the Place de la Commune, has few objects of interest. In the Place de la Commune you pass, R., the handsome and ornate Flemish Theatre; while, L., the Rue Carnot leads to the Zoological Garden, and to the uninteresting industrial suburb of Borgerhout. Beyond this comes a Covered Market, L., and then the Place Teniers, with a statue of Teniers. Here the Avenue de Keyser leads, L., to the main Railway Station (Gare de l’Est). Further on, L., the Avenue Marie-Thérèse, with a statue of Matsys, runs to the Park. So, a little later, do the Avenue Louise-Marie, with a statue of Leys, and the Avenue Marie-Henriette, with a statue of Jordaens. The handsome building, with domed and rounded turrets, on your R., just beyond the last-named Avenue, is the Banque Nationiale, intended to contain the public treasure of Belgium in case of war. Here the Chaussée de Malines leads off, S.E., to the uninteresting suburb of Berchem. The heavy new building on the L., a little further S., looking like a French mediæval château, is the Palais de Justice. From this point the Avenue du Sud runs through an unfinished district, occupying the site of the old Citadel (Alva’s) past the Museum and the Palais de l’Industrie, to the desolate Place du Sud, with the South Railway Station. You can return by tram along the Quays to the Hôtel-de-Ville and the Cathedral.
If you have plenty of time to spare, you may devote a day to
The Rococo Churches.
Most of the Antwerp churches, other than the Cathedral, are late Gothic or Renaissance buildings, disfigured by all the flyaway marble decorations so strangely admired during the 17th and 18th centuries. Few of them deserve a visit, save for a picture or two of Rubens still preserved on their altars. There are one or two, however, usually gone through by tourists, and of these I shall give some brief account, for the benefit of those who care for such things, though I do not think you need trouble about them, unless you have plenty of time, and are specially attracted by the later School of Antwerp.
The most important of these rococo churches is St. Jacques, the principal doorway of which opens into the Longue Rue Neuve. The pleasantest way to reach it, however, is to go from the Place Verte through the Marché aux Souliers, following the tramway to the Place de Meir. This broad street (one of the few open ones in Antwerp), lined by baroque Renaissance mansions of some pretensions, has been formed by filling up an old canal. The most imposing building on the R., marked by two angels holding an oval with the letter L. (the king’s initial), is the Royal Palace. A little further on, upon the same side of the street, is the House of Rubens’s Parents, with his bust above, and an inscription on its pediment signifying the fact in the Latin tongue. To reach St. Jacques you need not go quite as far down the street as these two buildings. Turn to your L. at the Bourse, a handsome modern edifice, standing at the end of what looks like a blind alley. The road runs through it, and it is practically used as a public thoroughfare. The building itself is recent—1869-72—but it occupies the site of a late-Gothic Exchange of 1531, erected by Dominic van Waghemakere. The present Bourse resembles its predecessor somewhat in style, but is much larger, has an incongruous Moorish tinge, and is provided with a nondescript glass-and-iron roof. Turn to the R. at the end of the lane, and continue down the Longue Rue Neuve, which leads you towards St. Jacques, a late-Gothic church, never quite completed. The entrance is not by the façade, but on the S. side, in the Longue Rue Neuve. (Visitors admitted from 12 till 4 p.m., 1 fr. per person. Knock at the door, and the sacristan will open.)
The interior is of good late-Gothic architecture, terribly over-loaded with Renaissance tombs and sprawling baroque marble decorations. The church was used as the Pantheon (or Westminster Abbey) for burials of distinguished Antwerp families under the Spanish domination; and they have left in every part of it their ugly and tasteless memorials.
Begin in the S. Aisle.
1st chapel. Van Dyck: St. George and the Dragon: mediocre. Above, statue of St. George, to whom angels offer crowns of martyrdom. Good modern marble reliefs of Scenes from the Passion, continued in subsequent chapels.
At the end, Baptistery, with good font.
2nd chapel, of St. Antony. Temptation of St. Antony, by M. De Vos. Italian 17th century Madonna.