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For five centuries, the tower of the Our Lady cathedral in Antwerp has steadily determined the city’s skyline. The view and interior of the cathedral kept on changing as up to today in its form which makes it a handbook for all possible styles: gothic, baroque, rococo, renaissance, etc.

Who could nowadays suspect that the origins of this great structure once lay in a small chapel from the 9th century. The current cathedral was built between 1352 and 1521 and became the largest gothic church of the Netherlands. The ground plan shows a seven nave cross basilica with a length of 117 metres by a width of 55 metres for the nave and 65 metres for the transept. The crossing is covered with a 48 metre high chapel. The two towers have an identical structure, but the southern tower (65,30 metres) ceases after three sections, while the northern tower (123 metres) received a fourth.

One can, as it were, go on a time travel throughout the different centuries: a marble Madonna statue from the 14th century, murals form the 15th century, and a representation of the 17th century by four masterpieces of Rubens. The big clock on the tower steeple dates from the 18th century. We then dive into the 19th century with the neo-Gothic decoration while the Metzler pipe organ goes back to the twentieth century. The work by Jan Fabre called ‘The man who carries the cross’ brings us back to the present by way of conclusion, ready to become history all by itself.

Peter Paul Rubens gives the cathedral its international appearance. He produced many artistic assignments for the church and for private individuals amongst whom there are the archdukes Albrecht and Isabella, the Spanish kings Philip III and Philip IV and the English and French dynasty. Masterpieces that one can admire in the cathedral are the Elevation of the Cross (1609-1610), the Resurrection of Christ (1611-1612), the Descent from the Cross (1611-1614) and the Assumption of the Virgin Mary (1625-1626).

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Monumental Churches of Antwerp