In the 16th and 17th centuries Antwerp was one of the richest cities in Europe, a centre of trade, printing and painting. Four buildings in its old town show that golden age from different sides: the printing house of Christophe Plantin, the church where Rubens is buried, the Jesuit church he helped decorate, and the butchers' guild hall by the Scheldt. All four are stops on our Antwerp scavenger hunt, and they lie within a short walk of each other. Rubens links them: he lived and worked in the city, painted for its churches and was a close friend of the Moretus family.
Plantin-Moretus Museum
In 1555 the French-born printer Christophe Plantin set up his business in Antwerp, and it grew into one of the largest printing houses in Europe. His most ambitious work was the Polyglot Bible, printed between 1568 and 1573 in eight volumes with parallel texts in several languages. After his death the business passed to his son-in-law Jan Moretus, and the Moretus family kept printing in the same house on the Vrijdagmarkt until the 19th century.
In 1876 the city bought the house with all its contents, and it opened as a museum the next year. In 2005 it became the first museum to be listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You walk through the family's living rooms, the shop, the type foundry, the proofreaders' room and the printing workshop, all furnished as they were.
- The printing presses in the workshop, including the two oldest surviving presses in the world.
- The portraits of the Plantin and Moretus families painted by Rubens, a friend of Balthasar Moretus.
- The courtyard garden and the library with its old books and printing types.
- Plantin's printer's mark, a hand holding a pair of compasses, with his motto Labore et Constantia, by labour and constancy.
St James' Church (Sint-Jacobskerk)
St James' Church was begun in 1491 in Brabantine Gothic style and took more than 150 years to finish, which is why its tower never reached its planned height. It was dedicated to St James because it stood on the pilgrims' route to Santiago de Compostela. Inside, the rich families of Antwerp paid for chapels, marble altars and paintings, so the interior is one of the most lavishly decorated in the city.
Peter Paul Rubens was buried here in 1640, in his family chapel behind the high altar. The chapel holds one of his last paintings, Our Lady with Saints, which according to tradition includes portraits of the painter and his family.
- The Rubens chapel behind the choir, with his tomb in front of the altar.
- The baroque marble altars and carved confessionals along the aisles.
St Charles Borromeo Church
This church on the quiet Hendrik Conscienceplein was built by the Jesuits between 1615 and 1621 and was one of the first great baroque churches in the Low Countries. Rubens was closely involved in its decoration: he designed ceiling paintings for the side aisles and galleries, painted with help from his workshop, including the young Anthony van Dyck. In 1718 lightning set the church on fire and those ceiling paintings were lost.
The church was first dedicated to St Ignatius of Loyola and was renamed after St Charles Borromeo when the Jesuit order was suppressed in 1773. The Lady Chapel survived the fire with its coloured marble almost intact. Several large altarpieces that Rubens painted for the church are now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
- The richly carved facade on the square, one of the finest baroque facades in Belgium.
- The high altar, with a mechanism that allows the large altar paintings to be changed.
- The square itself, named after Hendrik Conscience, the 19th-century author of The Lion of Flanders, whose statue stands in front of the library.
Museum Vleeshuis
The Vleeshuis, or Meat Hall, was built between 1501 and 1504 for the powerful butchers' guild, to designs by Herman de Waghemakere. Its bands of red brick and white stone are often compared to streaky bacon, and its tall stepped gables and corner towers make it one of the most striking late Gothic buildings in the city. The ground floor once held the stalls where butchers sold meat under guild control. It stands close to the river and to Het Steen, the old fortress on the Scheldt.
Today it is a museum of music and sound in Antwerp. It shows instruments made in the city, among them harpsichords by the Ruckers family, who were famous across Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries.
- The striped walls and gables, best seen from the Vleeshouwersstraat.
- The vaulted brick hall on the ground floor, where the meat market was held.
How to see them in one walk
Start at St James' Church in the Lange Nieuwstraat, then walk a few streets west to St Charles Borromeo on the Hendrik Conscienceplein. Continue towards the Grote Markt and down to the Vleeshuis near the Scheldt. From there head south past the Cathedral of Our Lady to the Vrijdagmarkt and the Plantin-Moretus Museum. Leave time for the inside of each: the museum alone can fill a couple of hours, and the churches have their own opening times. On the way, look up at the street corners: many old houses carry small statues of the Virgin Mary, a typical Antwerp sight. The old town streets are cobbled, so wear comfortable shoes.
See Antwerp with World City Trail
Our Antwerp scavenger hunt turns the old town into a game you play on your phone. The route links 10 stops, from Antwerpen-Centraal station to the Grote Markt, and all four places in this guide are stops, along with the Cathedral of Our Lady, the Groenplaats, Het Steen and the City Hall. At each stop you solve a puzzle and learn a story, at your own pace.
There is also a self-guided walking tour and an outdoor escape game in Antwerp, for people who prefer a different format.
Play the Antwerp scavenger hunt →
Take the self-guided walking tour of Antwerp →
Play the outdoor escape game in Antwerp →
Facts checked in October 2026.