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Roots Earth in Antwerp: audio stories about 45 places

Roots Earth has audio stories about 45 places in Antwerp, Belgium, in Europe. The Antwerp stories are in all seven Roots Earth languages: English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The app needs no account: open Antwerp, pick a place on the city's map of places and play. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection. The stories are written by local people.

The 45 places are listed below in the order the app shows them, and again further down with their coordinates. The lists were taken from the Roots Earth catalogue on 15 September 2026.

Published 16 September 2026. Markdown: antwerp.md

The 45 places in Antwerp with audio stories

In the order the app shows them.

  1. Cathedral of Our Lady
  2. Grote Markt (Great Market Square)
  3. Antwerp City Hall
  4. Brabo Fountain
  5. Rubens House
  6. Antwerp Central Station
  7. MAS (Museum aan de Stroom)
  8. Het Steen Castle
  9. Plantin-Moretus Museum
  10. Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp
  11. St. Paul's Church
  12. St. James's Church
  13. Church of St. Charles Borromeo
  14. Antwerp Diamond District
  15. Cogels-Osylei
  16. Antwerp Zoo
  17. Vlaeykensgang Alley
  18. Boerentoren (Farmers' Tower)
  19. Red Star Line Museum
  20. MoMu (Fashion Museum Antwerp)
  21. Antwerp Stock Exchange (Handelsbeurs)
  22. Meir (Shopping Street)
  23. Rockox House Museum
  24. Vleeshuis (Butchers' Hall)
  25. St. Anna's Tunnel (Pedestrian Tunnel)
  26. Hendrik Conscience Square
  27. Groenplaats
  28. Museum Mayer van den Bergh
  29. Maagdenhuis Museum
  30. St. Andrew's Church
  31. Stadsfeestzaal (City Festival Hall)
  32. Stadspark (City Park)
  33. Port of Antwerp (Port House)
  34. Het Zuid (The South)
  35. Het Eilandje (Docklands)
  36. Park Spoor Noord
  37. Zurenborg (Art Nouveau Quarter)
  38. Theaterplein Market (Exotic Market)
  39. Borgerhout (Multicultural Quarter)
  40. Berchem (Oud-Berchem)
  41. Sint-Andries Quarter (Parish of Misery)
  42. Cadix Quarter
  43. Sint-Jansvliet Square
  44. Kloosterstraat (Antiques Street)
  45. Schipperskwartier (Sailors' Quarter)

Is there an audio guide for Cathedral of Our Lady?

Yes. Cathedral of Our Lady has its audio stories in the Roots Earth app: a short introduction and a deeper story, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian.

It is place 1 of the 45 Antwerp places in the app, at 51.22056, 4.40417. Every one of the other 44 places in the list above has the same two stories.

Roots Earth is not a guided tour: you choose the place on the city's map of places and play its story yourself.

How to use Roots Earth in Antwerp

Open Roots Earth and choose Antwerp. The city has its own map of places with all 45 of them on it. Tap the place you are standing in front of, or any other, and play its short introduction or its deeper story. You decide what to listen to and in which order.

You can listen in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian, and there is no account. Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection.

In full

All 45 places in Antwerp, in the app's order, with their coordinates.

All 45 places in Antwerp, with coordinates

Every place below has a short introduction and a deeper story in the Roots Earth app, in English, German, Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian. The names, the coordinates (latitude, longitude) and the one line descriptions are the app's own catalogue values of 15 September 2026; a place without a line here has none that this page can print.

1. Cathedral of Our Lady

Coordinates
51.22056, 4.40417
In one line
The largest Gothic church in the Low Countries, built between 1352 and 1521. Its lace-like north tower rises 123 metres, the tallest church spire in the Benelux, and its interior holds celebrated altarpieces by Rubens.

2. Grote Markt (Great Market Square)

Coordinates
51.22139, 4.39972
In one line
Antwerp's historic central square, shaped in the Middle Ages and lined with gabled guild houses from the 16th and 17th centuries. Anchored by the Renaissance City Hall and the Brabo Fountain, it remains a hub for markets and events.

3. Antwerp City Hall

Coordinates
51.22111, 4.39917
In one line
Built between 1561 and 1565 by Cornelis Floris de Vriendt, this is one of northern Europe's earliest Renaissance civic buildings. Gutted in the 1576 Spanish Fury and quickly rebuilt, its loggia and statuary anchor the Grote Markt.

4. Brabo Fountain

Coordinates
51.22128, 4.39961
In one line
Jef Lambeaux's bronze fountain, unveiled in 1887 at the heart of the Grote Markt. It shows the hero Silvius Brabo hurling a giant's severed hand into the Scheldt, the legend behind Antwerp's name, rising over 10 metres above a base of sea creatures.

5. Rubens House

Coordinates
51.21778, 4.40972
In one line
The home and studio of Peter Paul Rubens, who bought the property in 1610 and remodeled it as an Italianate palace. He lived and ran his celebrated workshop here until his death in 1640. The city opened it as a museum in 1946.

6. Antwerp Central Station

Coordinates
51.21722, 4.42111
In one line
Built between 1895 and 1905 to designs by Louis Delacenserie, this eclectic railway cathedral pairs a stone-and-marble concourse beneath a vast dome with an iron-and-glass train shed. A major rebuild added underground through-platforms in 2007.

7. MAS (Museum aan de Stroom)

Coordinates
51.22889, 4.40556
In one line
A 60-metre tower of stacked stone boxes in the old docklands, opened in 2011 to designs by Neutelings Riedijk.

8. Het Steen Castle

Coordinates
51.2225, 4.3975
In one line
Antwerp's oldest surviving building, a stone riverside fortress whose origins reach back around eight centuries. Rebuilt under Charles the Fifth around 1520, it long guarded the Scheldt and now serves as a visitor centre and viewpoint.

9. Plantin-Moretus Museum

Coordinates
51.21861, 4.39833
In one line
A preserved Renaissance printing house founded by Christophe Plantin in the 16th century and run by his Moretus descendants for three centuries. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, it holds two of the world's oldest printing presses and complete sets of historic type.

10. Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp

Coordinates
51.20833, 4.39056
In one line
Antwerp's premier art museum, opened in 1890 in a grand Neoclassical building in the Zuid district. Its collection spans Flemish masters from Van Eyck and Rubens to James Ensor. A long renovation hid luminous new galleries inside the historic shell, reopening in 2022.

11. St. Paul's Church

Coordinates
51.22417, 4.40083
In one line
A Dominican church begun around 1517 in Brabantine Gothic style, with a sumptuous Baroque interior. It holds paintings by Rubens, Van Dyck and Jordaens, and an outdoor Calvary garden of dozens of life-size statues. It became a parish church in 1803.

12. St. James's Church

Coordinates
51.21972, 4.41167
In one line
A late Gothic church built between 1491 and 1656 on a pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela. Long the parish of wealthy Antwerp families, it holds Peter Paul Rubens's tomb and burial chapel, marked by a painting from the master's own hand.

13. Church of St. Charles Borromeo

Coordinates
51.22167, 4.40639
In one line
A High Baroque Jesuit church built between 1615 and 1621 on Hendrik Conscienceplein, modelled on the Gesu in Rome. Peter Paul Rubens helped shape its facade and once supplied thirty-nine ceiling paintings, lost to a lightning fire in 1718.

14. Antwerp Diamond District

Coordinates
51.21694, 4.41917
In one line
A dense trading quarter beside Central Station where much of the world's rough diamonds change hands. Shaped over five centuries by Jewish, Jain Indian and other communities, it packs four exchanges, hundreds of workshops and tight security into roughly one square mile.

15. Cogels-Osylei

Coordinates
51.20667, 4.43056
In one line
A showpiece avenue in Antwerp's Zurenborg quarter, built between 1894 and 1908 on former Osy farmland. Its themed mansions blend Art Nouveau, neo-Renaissance and revival styles into an open-air museum of turn-of-the-century architecture that narrowly escaped demolition.

16. Antwerp Zoo

Coordinates
51.21694, 4.42361
In one line
One of the world's oldest zoos, founded in 1843 beside Antwerp Central Station. Around 5,000 animals live among protected nineteenth-century buildings, including an Egyptian temple and a Moorish house, while its research centre runs breeding programs for endangered okapis and bonobos.

17. Vlaeykensgang Alley

Coordinates
51.22, 4.40083
In one line
A narrow medieval alley dating from 1591, hidden off the Oude Koornmarkt near the cathedral. Once home to shoemakers and the city's poor, it escaped demolition in the 1960s and now winds through quiet courtyards lined with antique shops and restaurants.

18. Boerentoren (Farmers' Tower)

Coordinates
51.21833, 4.40472
In one line
Built between 1929 and 1932, the Boerentoren rose around 87 meters as one of Europe's earliest skyscrapers. Its stepped Art Deco form long defined the Antwerp skyline after the cathedral, and the tower is now being transformed into a cultural venue.

19. Red Star Line Museum

Coordinates
51.23167, 4.40139
In one line
Housed in the original Red Star Line port buildings and opened in 2013, this museum tells the story of around two million emigrants who sailed from Antwerp to America. Among its passengers were a young Irving Berlin and, later, Albert Einstein.

20. MoMu (Fashion Museum Antwerp)

Coordinates
51.21722, 4.40167
In one line
Antwerp's fashion museum, founded in 2002 in the ModeNatie building on Nationalestraat. It collects and exhibits Belgian fashion through immersive, rotating shows, celebrating designers such as the Antwerp Six who placed the city on the global fashion map.

21. Antwerp Stock Exchange (Handelsbeurs)

Coordinates
51.21889, 4.40444
In one line
The world's first purpose-built commercial exchange, opened in 1531 and rebuilt in neo-Gothic style by Joseph Schadde in 1872 after fires. Its galleried courtyard beneath an iron and glass roof inspired exchanges across Europe and now hosts events.

22. Meir (Shopping Street)

Coordinates
51.21778, 4.41139
In one line
Behind its store signs stand eighteenth-century mansions and a former royal palace, and it commands the highest retail rents in the country.

23. Rockox House Museum

Coordinates
51.22139, 4.4075
In one line
The townhouse of Nicolaas Rockox, repeated mayor of Antwerp, humanist and patron of Rubens. United and rebuilt around 1603 in Renaissance style around a herb garden, it now serves as a museum where Flemish Old Masters hang in intimate, lived-in rooms.

24. Vleeshuis (Butchers' Hall)

Coordinates
51.22306, 4.39944
In one line
A late-Gothic guild hall raised between 1501 and 1504 for Antwerp's powerful butchers' corporation. Its banded brick and sandstone walls earned it the nickname bacon house. Once the city's regulated meat market, it later became a museum of the city's music and sound.

25. St. Anna's Tunnel (Pedestrian Tunnel)

Coordinates
51.22056, 4.39556
In one line
A pedestrian passage of 572 metres running beneath the Scheldt to link central Antwerp with the left bank.

26. Hendrik Conscience Square

Coordinates
51.22167, 4.40556
In one line
A serene baroque square, once called Jesuit Square, framed by the Church of Saint Charles Borromeo and a former Jesuit building now a heritage library.

27. Groenplaats

Coordinates
51.21861, 4.40139
In one line
A tree-shaded public square beside Antwerp Cathedral, laid out from 1803 on the site of a former churchyard. A bronze statue of Rubens, erected in 1843, stands at its centre, while the cathedral spire rises above the cafe terraces and trams.

28. Museum Mayer van den Bergh

Coordinates
51.21528, 4.40694
In one line
An intimate museum raised between 1901 and 1904 to house the collection of Fritz Mayer van den Bergh. Built by his mother in a neo-Gothic town house, it holds outstanding early Netherlandish art, crowned by Pieter Bruegel the Elder's celebrated Dulle Griet.

29. Maagdenhuis Museum

Coordinates
51.215, 4.40639
In one line
A former orphanage for girls founded in 1552, its white-stone facade rebuilt in the 1630s. Today the Maagdenhuis Museum displays Flemish paintings, foundling garments and porridge bowls that tell the story of Antwerp's abandoned children.

30. St. Andrew's Church

Coordinates
51.21639, 4.3975
In one line
A late-Gothic parish church begun by Augustinian friars in the early 16th century, with a richly Baroque interior. It holds a rare memorial to Mary, Queen of Scots and long served the poor fishermen's quarter of Sint-Andries.

31. Stadsfeestzaal (City Festival Hall)

Coordinates
51.2175, 4.41306
In one line
A grand neoclassical festival hall built in 1908 on the Meir, gutted by fire in 2000 and faithfully restored. It reopened in 2007 as a luxury shopping gallery beneath a glazed dome covered in gold leaf.

32. Stadspark (City Park)

Coordinates
51.21222, 4.41639
In one line
A 14-hectare city park laid out between 1867 and 1869 by landscape architect Édouard Keilig in the English style. Built on former Spanish fortifications, it winds curving paths around a pond once crossed by an elegant bridge of his design.

33. Port of Antwerp (Port House)

Coordinates
51.24028, 4.41639
In one line
Zaha Hadid's diamond-shaped glass headquarters for the Port of Antwerp, opened in 2016. A faceted, ship-like volume rises on stilts above a preserved former fire station, housing around 500 staff in the docklands.

34. Het Zuid (The South)

Coordinates
51.20694, 4.39306
In one line
A 19th-century grid of broad boulevards and Belle Epoque townhouses south of the old centre, built after the city citadel came down. Once nicknamed Little Paris, Het Zuid is now Antwerp's museum and nightlife quarter.

35. Het Eilandje (Docklands)

Coordinates
51.23083, 4.40639
In one line
Antwerp's oldest dockland, ringed by 19th-century basins and named the little island in 1869. Once warehouses and sailors' bars, it is now a redeveloped quarter of lofts, marinas and museums, anchored by the MAS on the old port grounds.

36. Park Spoor Noord

Coordinates
51.23278, 4.4225
In one line
A wide green park laid over a former railway yard in northern Antwerp, opened in 2008. Its lawns, water jets and skate bowl stitch together three working-class neighbourhoods once cut off by the tracks.

37. Zurenborg (Art Nouveau Quarter)

Coordinates
51.20861, 4.43028
In one line
A turn-of-the-century residential quarter straddling Antwerp and Berchem, with street and residential development beginning in 1882 and continuing through at least 1910. Its streets of fantastical Art Nouveau, neoclassical and historicist townhouses form one of Europe's richest open-air museums of fin-de-siecle architecture.

38. Theaterplein Market (Exotic Market)

Coordinates
51.215, 4.40972
In one line
A large city-centre square beneath a striking modern canopy, home to Antwerp's weekend markets. Saturdays bring the bustling exotic market, while Sundays host part of the famous bird market, drawing crowds for food, plants and household goods.

39. Borgerhout (Multicultural Quarter)

Coordinates
51.21528, 4.44056
In one line
A dense, multicultural district of Antwerp, an independent town until 1983 and now its smallest district. Nicknamed Borgerokko for its strong North African community, it pairs a working-class past with a lively cultural scene around venues like De Roma.

40. Berchem (Oud-Berchem)

Coordinates
51.19944, 4.43306
In one line
A southern district of Antwerp, independent until 1983, split by the ring road into dense Oud-Berchem and quieter suburbs. It holds the celebrated Zurenborg Art Nouveau streets, a major railway station and a mixed, lived-in character.

41. Sint-Andries Quarter (Parish of Misery)

Coordinates
51.21528, 4.39889
In one line
A dense old quarter in central Antwerp, once a crowded working-class district nicknamed the Parish of Misery. Long home to dockers and craftspeople, it now mixes that gritty heritage with vintage shops and a gentrified, creative edge.

42. Cadix Quarter

Coordinates
51.23556, 4.4125
In one line
A former dockland quarter on Antwerp's Eilandje, ringed by water and old warehouses. Once known as the Yellow Quarter, it has been redeveloped since the 2010s into a sustainable residential neighbourhood named after the Spanish port of Cádiz.

43. Sint-Jansvliet Square

Coordinates
51.21889, 4.39667
In one line
A small square near the Scheldt, named after the oldest known Antwerp vliet, a medieval waterway dug around 1200 and later filled in. Its quiet plane trees shelter the right-bank entrance to the Sint-Annatunnel, the pedestrian tunnel running under the river since 1933.

44. Kloosterstraat (Antiques Street)

Coordinates
51.21694, 4.39444
In one line
A long street in the Sint-Andries quarter, named after the vanished Sint-Michielsabdij, the Norbertine abbey founded in 1124. Today it is Antwerp's best-known street for antiques, brocante, and vintage shops, lined with old gabled houses between the Oever and the Vlaamse Kaai.

45. Schipperskwartier (Sailors' Quarter)

Coordinates
51.22556, 4.40361
In one line
A historic district near the old port, named for the bargemen and sailors who once worked its quays. Since the 19th century it has been Antwerp's red-light district, later reshaped by a major regeneration that confined window prostitution to three tolerated streets.

Roots Earth in short

Roots Earth has audio stories about 5,665 places in 130 cities, 25 countries and 6 regions, written by local people.

  • No account
  • Download a city's audio, then it plays without a connection
  • Audio stories in English and German in every city, and in Spanish, Italian, French, Dutch and Albanian in 126 of the 130 cities

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