"City of Cathedral and Stone castle " a Antwerp Travel Page by speed4turtles

Before we start " Welcome ".
Let me remind you that my normal tongue is Dutch and at the time i was going to school we must learn French as second language.
So please, If i do or write something wrong, forgive me .
Feel free to go to http://www.2747.com/2747/world/antwerpen/antwerpen/wapper/index.htm wich is a very complete site about Antwerpen .

Antwerp, second largest city of Belgium.. The 500.000 inhabitants call it the 'Metropolis' (Antwerpians are known in Belgium for not being too modest). This city has so many different facets that it takes a while before one gets to know it thoroughly.

It is the second largest harbor of Europe (after Rotterdam). Moreover, Antwerp is a splendid city with numerous architectural highlights, most of which date from the 16th (the golden era of Antwerp) and the 17th century. The destructions of the Second World War, unfortunately, has scarred somehow the fair face of the old town. Still there are enough monuments left for those who like monument-hopping to spend a few days admiring them. The past is also represented by the numerous paintings of Peter Paul Rubens who lived in the Antwerp of the early 17th century.

Antwerp, the diamond center of the World. If diamonds really are a girl's best friend, than a lot of ladies will not leave out a visit to the diamond district around the Railway Station. This area is also the Jewish part of the city. The presence of many 'Chassidic' Jewish people gives the city a flair that cannot be found in other Belgian cities.

Antwerp, however, does not only live from the past. Nowadays, Antwerp has earned a place among the fashion cities of the world thanks to the efforts of numerous young Flemish fashion designers ( e.g.: Walter Van Beirendonck, Nadine Wynants, Ann De Meulemeester, Dirk Bikkembergs, Kaat Tilley and others). Visit the fashion area of Antwerp near the Meir shopping street

Excavations have shown that there was certainly habitation on the bend in the river as long ago as the Gallo-Roman period (2nd or 3rd century A.D.). Like many Flemish cities Antwerp grew up around two settlements : the ‘aanwerp’ or ‘alluvial mound’ from which the city probably derives its name, and Caloes, 500 meters further south. A fortification was built on the mound around the seventh century. Christianization also began in that period. In the ninth century, when Antwerp became part of Lorraine, that ‘castellum’ was destroyed by the Norman's.

The present-day Steen still comprises remains of its tenth-century replacement. At the end of the tenth century Antwerp became a margraviate (a border province) of the Holy Roman Empire. The border was the River Scheldt. The County of Flanders lay on the other side. In the twelfth century Saint Norbertus founded St. Michael’s Abbey on Caloes. The canons of the little church that had stood there then moved to the northern nucleus and founded a new parish there around a Chapel of Our Lady - the first forerunner of the Cathedral.