As typical of Antwerp as the Scheldt is the 123 meters high tower of the Cathedral of our Lady, like lacework in stone.   This largest and tallest gothic  church  in the low Countries was completed in the 16th  century , Antwerp’s golden age.   This monumental piece of architecture gives some idea of the wealth of old  Antwerp.

It was built on a pagan religious site where  a wooden fertility goddess was worshipped.  From the  7th century  onward  missionaries brought Christianity to the Frankish population and in the 12th century a first Romanesque church of Our Lady was built.  This was just a parish church.  Building works for the gothic cathedral started in 1352 and lasted for 169 years.
It was built according to the French gothic cathedrals in the 13th century .  The gothic is the architectural answer to vision.  God is light.  People come to church to meet God. So the whole of this construction reaches into eternity.
Today little remains of the original furnishing.  Like other Antwerp churches it suffered from repeated plundering : the iconoclasm (1566), Calvinist purging (1581) and looting by the French revolutionaries (from 1794).
A number of splendid works of art still decorate the interior : alters and stained glass windows, confessionals and the pulpit and last but not least : four masterpieces by Rubens.  It is still the queen of cathedrals.

You can find a statue of Rubens on the GROENPLAATS  or do you prefer to have a look into the house he lived in Antwerp?

Don't forget to pass the Vlaeykensgang, a 16th century alleyway!