The waiting hall
A gilded dome, twenty marbles and a royal staircase.
Paul Hermans — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Giles Laurent — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Giles Laurent — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Giles Laurent — CC BY-SA 4.0
Antwerp Central Station is regularly ranked among the world's most beautiful railway stations — the "railway cathedral": a grand waiting hall of 1905 with a gilded dome, twenty kinds of stone and marble and a majestic royal staircase, and the platform hall with its soaring glass-and-iron roof (186 metres long, 44 high) resembling the nave of an industrial church. Its modernity lies in its conversion (1998–2009): new floors were dug beneath the old terminus so it now has four levels of platforms through which high-speed trains pass underground — while the old hall above stayed as it was. Standing at the centre, you see the platforms descending in tiers beneath you and trains leaving in every direction: a sight like no other station. Free and always open, with the zoo beside it and the diamond quarter behind — 40 minutes from Brussels, and a reason to alight in itself.
A gilded dome, twenty marbles and a royal staircase.
Four levels descending beneath you — a unique sight.
A soaring iron-and-glass roof like an industrial nave.
Koningin Astridplein 27, 2018 Antwerp
Antwerp ZooAntwerp Zoo is among the world's oldest zoos (1843) and its most beautiful archi2 minutes walk4.3
City Park (Stadspark)The Stadspark is central Antwerp's main public park: a green triangle of 1869 cr9 minutes walk4.2
Beguinage of AntwerpAntwerp's beguinage is a hidden oasis of silence on the edge of the old town: a 10 minutes walk4.7
Rubens HouseThe Rubens House is the palace Peter Paul Rubens built for himself in 1610 on re10 minutes walk4.3
St James's Church (Rubens' Tomb)St James's Church is Rubens' resting place: a huge late-Gothic church (1491–165610 minutes walk4.6Directly behind the station (Hoveniersstraat and the neighbouring streets): Antwerp has been a diamond trading centre since the sixteenth century, and about **84%** of the world's rough diamonds pass through it on the Antwerp World Diamond Centre's own figure, and the quarter is dense with jewellers and diamond exchanges — visited for browsing and buying (check certificates). The DIVA museum in the old town tells the story. The quarter is quiet on Saturdays (the Jewish Sabbath).