Photos

On the cold and bright morning of December 29, I put on my comfortable walking shoes and went a walking in my hometown...

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This is the Vleeshuis (lit. 'Meat House'), a 500 years old civil building in the heart of old Antwerp.

The building functioned as a meat market where butchers could sell their merchandise. A Butcher's Hall had been built on this location as early as in 1250, but in the early 16th century, as Antwerp was becoming Europe's most important trade center, the butcher's guild decides to build a new hall twice as large as the existing hall.

Construction of the building started in 1501 and was completed in 1504. For its time, it was enormous, especially as a civil building.

Its facade was made of red brick with layers of white sandstone, 'bacon layers' as this style is known locally ('speklagen' in Flemish).

The narrow streets around the Vleeshuis slope down towards the Scheldt river, facilitating the butchers' helpers' cleaning up.

As a kid I used to imagine streams of blood flowing towards the river...
(see WS)

These days the Vleeshuis is one of the city's museums. Since 2006 it houses the City Music Museum, but when I first visited it, a long, long time ago, it housed a real Egyptian mummy which used to send shivers up our spines.

Real Gothic!