Belgium's most stylish city where diamond traders eat frites at midnight and chocolate is a second religion
Antwerp sits on the Scheldt River with an energy that leaves Brussels in the shade — a medieval port city that became the richest city in Europe in the 16th century, then reinvented itself as the world's diamond capital and a fashion powerhouse, without ever losing the neighbourhood Flemish food culture that anchors everything. Stoofvlees (beef braised in dark Trappist ale) served with double-fried frites, carbonnades, mussels in white wine, waffles eaten standing at a counter — Belgian food here is simpler and more satisfying than tourist menus make it look. The MAS museum, the guild halls o…
Antwerp's golden age arrived in the 15th and 16th centuries, when the city's port on the Scheldt controlled the bulk of European trade — at its peak, half of the world's commerce passed through Antwerp, making it the wealthiest city on the continent. Rubens was born here, built his house here, and died here, establishing a Baroque tradition that shaped Flemish painting for two centuries. The diamond trade followed, brought by Sephardic Jewish merchants expelled from Iberia in 1492, and Antwerp remains one of the world's four diamond-trading centres today.