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Overview
Many visitors to Antwerp are caught unaware as they disembark from the train, not realizing that they're stepping into one of the world's most breathtaking terminals. An enormous number of films have used Antwerp's Central Station as a backdrop, and its neo-Gothic tracery, marble floors and soaring ceilings are a beautiful gateway to a spectacular city of a half-million residents.
Just outside of Central Station lies the Diamond District. Antwerp serves as the center of the international diamond trade, and 85% of the world's uncut diamonds pass through its bounds. Many diamond merchants are Hassidic Jews, whose presence enhances the city's multicultural ambiance.
An altogether different experience awaits as you walk down the Meir or one of Antwerp's other major fashion thoroughfares. Here, fast-paced, youthful energy is contagious. Since the 1980s, when six young designers graduated from Antwerp's Academy of Fine Arts and shocked Paris- and New York-based arbiters of style, the city has become increasingly well-known as a frontline for fashion. International journalists now visit annual designer showcases, and shoppers from Amsterdam and Brussels journey in to buy the latest styles.
Turn down a side street, leave behind the multilevel department stores and chic shops, and discover a house that represents the soul of Antwerp. Seventeenth-century painter Pieter Paul Rubens remains Antwerp's most famous native son and is, perhaps, the reason this city transformed itself into the cultural heart of Flanders. The Flanders Opera, the Royal Flanders Ballet and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Flanders are all headquartered here, and Antwerp is home to many theater companies and performing arts centers as well. Nurturing this environment, most of the city's myriad museums admit visitors free one day each week, trusting that lack of funds won't keep people from learning about Flemish art, new and old.
The Grote Markt and its surrounding buildings dominate Antwerp's older, historic section. On one side of the Old City's main square is the massive city hall, largely unchanged since it was built in the mid-1500s. Across the square is the Cathedral of Our Lady, the largest church in the Low Countries. In the middle of the square stands the Brabo Fountain, which recounts one of Antwerp's most colorful myths. Legend has it that an evil giant, Antigonius, lived along the Scheldt River, demanding heavy tolls from shipmasters who wanted to pass into or out of the city. If they refused to pay, Antigonius chopped off one of their hands. One day the brave Roman soldier Silvius Brabo – rumored to be the nephew of Julius Caesar – fought and killed the giant. In a textbook example of "what comes around goes around" Brabo severed the giant's hand and threw it into the Scheldt. This act of emancipation supposedly gave rise to the city's name: "Hantwerpen," later shortened to Antwerpen, means "hand throwing."
