Antwerp

(Flemish, Antwerpen; French, Anvers), city in northern Belgium, on the navigable Scheldt River and the Albert Canal, 90 km from the shore of the North Sea. It is one of the largest ports of the world. It is the administrative center of Antwerp province and the second most populous city in the country (after Brussels)—239,800 inhabitants (1967). Including environs, the total population is 675,300.

Foreign trade and finance have a large role in the economy of Antwerp. It is a junction for international naval communications. The port is enormous, including freight harbors and ocean basins, joined by canals, its own railway network, and 45 km of berthing. Freight turnover reaches 60 million tons a year (1967), about one-third of which is international transit shipping. Industries in Antwerp are for the most part connected with the processing of imported raw materials and the servicing of navigation. The most important branches include shipbuilding and other branches of machine building, non-ferrous metallurgy, oil refining, diamond cutting, and chemical, textile, and food industries.

The city, divided by the river, has no bridges; the two parts are connected by tunnels under the Scheldt. Bordering on the Scheldt is the picturesque old section of the city with late Gothic buildings: the Cathedral (1352–1616; north tower 123 m high, 1521–30), the fortress of Steen (rebuilt 1520–21), the Church of Saint Jacob, (1491–1507), the house of the Butchers’ Corporation (1501–03), and residential houses. There are representative buildings of the Flemish Renaissance on the Grote Markt square: the Town Hall (1561–65, architect C. Floris) and guild houses of the 16th century. Baroque monuments include the church of Saint Charles Borro-meus (1614–21, architect P. Huysens) and the royal palace (1743–45, architect J. P. Baursheidt). On the site of the 16th-century fortress walls there is a semicircular ring of boulevards; beyond them there are new sections (residential, industrial, and port) and parks. In the 20th century, the tall Torengebouw (1930–31), the airport (1931, architect S. Jasinski), the Kiel housing complexes (1950–55, architects R. Braem, V. Maermans, and R. Maes), the Luchtbal (1955, architect H. van Kuyck), and others have been built. Antwerp has a conservatory and a commercial institute. Its museums include the Royal Museum of Fine Arts (founded 1810), the house of the printers C. Plantin and B. Moretus (built 1576–80), and the house of P. P. Rubens (built about 1611–18).

Antwerp arose on the site of a Roman settlement. It was first mentioned in seventh-century documents and gradually developed as a center of crafts and trade from the 12th century, achieving city rights in 1291. With the development of capitalist relations in handicraft industry and trade (from the end of the 15th century), Antwerp overtook the old economic centers (Bruges and Ghent). It reached full flower by the mid-16th century, becoming the foremost trade and credit center in Europe. Complete freedom of commercial and credit transactions was established on the Antwerp exchange (opened in 1460). During the bourgeois revolution of the 16th century in the Netherlands, Antwerp was the arena for sharp class struggle (the Iconoclast Uprising of 1566 and others); in 1576 it was ravaged by Spanish troops. In 1579 Antwerp joined the Union of Utrecht, but in August 1585 after a long siege it was taken by the Spanish. The continuation of Spanish rule and the closing of the mouth of the Scheldt to trade by the

Dutch in 1609 deprived Antwerp of its former economic importance. In independent Belgium (from 1830), especially after the Belgian government redeemed the right of trade on the Scheldt from the Netherlands in 1863, Antwerp became economically important once more, primarily as a large trade port. During World Wars I and II it was occupied by the Germans.