Antwerp is the chief port of Belgium and one of the most important trading cities in the whole of Europe.
Antwerp is a very old
city. It was founded on the Scheldt River, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) from the sea. In the Middle Ages,
merchants led their trains of pack horses across Germany to Antwerp, bringing silks and spices from Constantinopole (Istanbul today), and furs from the shores of the Black Sea. In the city they bought cloth to take back with them. By 1560 Antwerp was very rich indeed. More than 1000 merchants lived there and as many as 500
ships might sail into its harbour in one day.
The city has seen much desperate fighting. In 1576 it was plundered by mutinous Spanish soldiers who massacred thousands of the inhabitants. By the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Year’s War in 1648, ships were no longer allowed to sail up the Scheldt River, and thiswas a great blow to Antwerp’s tradeand wealth. After the Napoleanic Wars it was ruled by the Dutch until the Belgian revolution of 1830 after which Belgium separated from the Netherlands. The Scheldt estuary, however, remained in Dutch hands and heavy tolls were abolished and Antwerp’s prosperity returned. It was besieged by the Germans in World War I and occupiedby them in World War II.
Today, the main
industries are diamond cutting, sugar refining, shipbuilding, and glassmaking. Also worth mentioning are the automobile workshops, the oil refineries, the electric and electronic industries, and the food industry. In the modern
docks many ships can be seen, and behind the docks are broad streets ans squares, where houses built by rich merchants in the 16
th century can be found. In one of them, a
famous printer, Christophe Plantin, lived and worked about 350 years ago.
The most beautiful building in the city is the cathedral. Its steeple is so delicately carved that it looks like lace. Inside there are Ruben’s famous paintings
The Descent from the Cross, The Raising of the Cross and The Assumption of the Virgin. Antwerp is also famous for its lovely town hall, for its picture gallery, where there are many Flemish paintings of the 16th and 17th centuries, and for its many museums.
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