Antwerp Travel Guide

Antwerp is Belgium's sharpest, most stylish city — a working port with the swagger of a capital. For four hundred years it has been the world's diamond centre, and that wealth shows in everything from the soaring Gothic Cathedral of Our Lady to the grand Central Station, a domed "railway cathedral" routinely ranked among the most beautiful in the world. This was Rubens's city, and his presence is everywhere: in the cathedral's altarpieces and at the Rubenshuis, the house and studio he designed for himself.

It is also a fashion capital out of all proportion to its size — the "Antwerp Six" put it on the map, and the MoMu fashion museum and the boutiques around the Nationalestraat keep it there. Add some of the best beer bars in the country and a riverside fortress, Het Steen, and Antwerp makes a compelling case as Belgium's most rewarding city break. Under an hour by train from Brussels.