June 30 - Antwerp

 June 30 - Antwerp 

A bit of a cultural day today with three museums/ art galleries on the agenda.  

First cab off the rank was to the house of Peter Paul Rubens, the artist.  Designed by Rubens himself, its a stunning property and in parts looking like an Italian palazzo.  Although home to a number of his own paintings, including the study ‘the soldier with three arms’, there’s also a collection of paintings and sculptures by other artists. A very worthwhile visit. 

The Mayer Van de Burgh Museum was to be our next visit. Seemingly like somebody’s home, although actually purpose built as a museum, this houses the 14th to 16th century art collection of Mayer van den Bergh. Home to mainly paintings, it also contains statues, glassware, tapestries, etc, however, the standout for me is the collection of Brueghel’s.  Interesting to note that when we bought our tickets elsewhere we were told that this museum is the most underrated in Antwerp, it’s hard to disagree. 

Our last visit was to the Plantin-Moretus printing museum.  Focusing on the work and lives of the 16th-century printers Plantin and Moretus, the most prolific printing and publishing house in Europe in the 16th century, this is the only museum in the world that’s a UNESCO World Heritage site. Housing a huge collection of old printing equipment, an extensive library, invaluable print-work archives, and works of art, this was far more interesting than I thought prior to our visit. In addition, it’s also home to more Rubens paintings than the Rubenhuis museum itself!

This morning JEM had been investigating what else Antwerp had to offer and  discovered this small suburb. With lots of very large and unusual looking houses no wonder there were more lawyer signs here than anywhere else we’d seen!