Antwerp Museums

 This is a limited list of some of the most interesting and well known museums in the center of Antwerp.

The Royal Museum of Fine Arts

Leopold De Waelplaats, 2000 Antwerp

Opening hours: Every day from 10am-5pm, except on Mondays

Admission: €5

The collection preserved at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp provides a representative picture of art produced in our regions between the fourteenth century and the present day.

MuHKA (Museum for Contemporary Arts)


Leuvenstraat

Opening hours: Every day from 10am-5pm, except on Mondays

Admission: €4

MuHKA's full name is Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, or Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp. The MUHKA's 4 000 square metres of exhibition space is devoted to art from 1970 to the present day. The building and the collection, which of course is constantly being added to, belongs to the Flemish Community.

Museum of Photography

Waalsekaai 47, 2000 Antwerp

Opening hours: Every day from 10 am-5pm, except on Mondays

Admission: €6

The Provincial Museum of Photography uses photographs, pieces of equipment and other object and documents to illustrate the history of this technique and art. It is one of the world's major museums in the genre.

Museum Plantijn-Moretus

Vrijdagmarkt 22, 2000 Antwerp

Opening hours: Every day from 10am-5pm

Admission: €4

The museum shows the whole book production process as it was in the old days and an enormous collection of books, printed or collected by Plantijn and the Moretus family. Moreover, visitors can admire the original interior of the patrician house.

Rubenshuis (House of Rubens)

Wapper 9-11, 2000 Antwerp

Opening hours: Every day from 10am to 5pm

Admission: €5. Tariffs change during temporary exhibitions

In a side-street (named 'Wapper') of the Meir avenue stands the former house of Peter Paul Rubens, the greatest and most famous of all the Antwerp painters.
It now houses the Rubens House Museum. Nowadays visitors to the house should be aware that they don't visit a house as it was left behind by its most famous inhabitant, but rather a reconstruction of what it must have looked like in the first half of the 17th century.
The collection of paintings by Rubens himself and by some of his contemporaries alone makes it worth to pay the entrance fee. During a visit one can stroll through the reconstructed garden, visit the work shop of Rubens and his private quarters.

Vleeshuis

Vleeshouwerstraat 38-40, 2000 Antwerp

Opening hours: Every day from 10am-5 pm

Admission: €2.50
This late-Gothic hall (1501-1504) was originally the only place in the city where meat could be sold. The Butchers' Guild had a chapel, a banqueting hall, a meeting room and a kitchen here.
This museum now houses archaeological finds, applied art and objects which document local history.

Ethnographic museum

Suikerrui 19

Opening hours: Every day from 10am-5pm, open on White Monday

Entrance fee: €4

A visit to the internationally famed Ethnographic Museum is like a journey that enables you to explore the art, ingenuity and wisdom of the peoples of the earth, or, in other words, the riches of the most diverse cultures.
The museum shows objets d'art and utensils from Africa, America, Asia and the South Sea area. The total collection, which started in 1864, now comprises some 25 000 objects.

Diamond museum

Koningin Astridplein 19-23, 2000 Antwerp

Opening hours: Open every day of the week, from 10am-6pm.

Admission: €3

Antwerp is the world centre of diamond processing and of the diamond trade. The famous Antwerp cut and the advanced scientific research are founded on the centuries of tradition, which are brought to life in this museum. The displays guide visitors through the whole production process from mining to the dazzling end product. The history of the fascinating industry and trade that have developed around these little gems is also covered. A complete nineteenth-century diamond workshop has been reconstructed in the museum, but the real centrepiece is the treasure chamber where priceless pieces of jewellery sparkle seductively. On Saturday afternoons and by arrangement in advance on weekdays, you can see a diamond cutter at work in the museum.

Middelheim museum

Middelheimlaan 61, Wilrijk

Opening hours: Every day from 10am-8pm, except on Mondays

Admission: free

The Middelheim Open Air Sculpture Museum is situated just outside the "Ring" in a park that was purchased by the City way back in 1910 to prevent it being cut up into lots. The permanent exhibition of modern sculpture was put together in the fifties at the instigation of the then burgomaster Lode Craeybeckx. The collection now consists of more than 300 pieces, beginning chronologically with Auguste Rodin. Most are out in the open air and share the seasons with the wonderful nature. However a number of sculptures require protection from elements and so are housed in a pavilion.

Rockoxhuis

Keizerstraat 12, 2000 Antwerp

Opening hours: Every day from 10 am-5 pm, except on Mondays

Admission: €2.50

This museum was once the home of seventeenth-century mayor Nicolaas Rockox, art collector and friend of Rubens. Purchased by the Kredietbank in 1970, the house was refurbished according the inventory drawn up on Rockox' death. The collection has since been added to and comprises works by Rubens, Van Dyck, Jordaens, Teniers, Bruegel, Matsijs and many others.

Fashion museum (MoMu)

Corner Nationalestraat/Drukkerijstraat

Opening hours: Every day, from 10am-5pm, except on Mondays

Admission: €5

The MoMu (Mode Museum) collection consists largely of an inheritance from the former Textile and Costume Museum: it is a very diverse collection of clothing, lace, embroidery, fabrics and tools for artisanal textile processing, mostly from the Southern Netherlands.
The oldest collection pieces date back to the 16th century, but the emphasis is on the 19th century. MoMu, with its contemporary vision and purchasing policy, will add creations by Belgian fashion designers in particular.