The Antwerp issue
Walking Antwerp's Schipperskwartier from church to club
A Rubens in a church still in use, a river terrace open again and a Chinese dining room trading since 1923, walked in the order the quarter's opening hours allow.
By Tomás AlmeidaA city read one street at a time
Behind Sint-Pauluskerk (Veemarkt), 63 life-size blackened stone saints, skeletons and angels climb an artificial grotto inside an enclosed 18th-century rockery. In the church beside it, Rubens, Van Dyck and Jordaens still hang in the building their work was painted for. Adult entry is €5.
Sint-Pauluskerk and the Calvary garden
The church is the headline sight of the Schipperskwartier: late-Gothic, with a baroque bell tower over Veemarkt, and the only church in Antwerp where those three painters hang where they were meant to be seen. Give the interior the first half hour. Then go out into the enclosed Calvary and read it upwards, because the blackened figures climb the face of the rockery with the white stone gables of the church closing the view behind them.
Entry is €5 for an adult and €3 for students and for groups of 15 and more. Under-18s pay nothing. Guided visits are booked in advance, which is the call to make if you are walking a party of any size through here.
Tourists cannot go in during Sunday mass at 10:30 or Wednesday vespers at 17:00. Winter hours shrink to Friday to Sunday, 14:00 to 17:00. Check them before you walk over, and in that season take the archive and the coffee below in the morning and the church after lunch.
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Inside the FelixArchief
FelixArchief (Sint-Felixpakhuis) is the best interior in the quarter and it costs nothing. The 1861 brick warehouse is split down its length by a covered inner street under a glass roof, cast-iron columns along both sides and tiers of archive balconies above them. Walk the full length of that street for the port-warehouse scale of the place, and look up at the balconies rather than ahead.
The inner street and the ground floor are open to anyone who walks in off the pavement. The reading room needs a reservation. Guided tours for groups and heritage-day openings are arranged in advance.
Opening is Tuesday to Friday, 08:30 to 16:30, and nothing else. Plan it into a weekday morning.
Normo Coffee on Minderbroedersrui
Normo Coffee (Minderbroedersrui) roasts in the middle of its own room. The drum stands between raw concrete and plywood, sacks and retail bags of beans are stacked around the walls, and these beans go out to half of the good cafés in Antwerp. Coffee is €3 to €5. Buy a bag off the shelf on the way out.
It opens Monday to Saturday, 08:30 to 17:00, and shuts on Sundays, which makes it the daytime counterweight to the quarter's night-time reputation. The room is small and takes no bookings, so it suits a few people at a time.
The quay from Jordaenskaai to Het Steen
The Scheldekaaien Northern Hangars and Walking Terrace (Jordaenskaai) reopened on 10 July 2026 after an €8m restoration, and it is the free walk that links these streets to the river. The raised terrace runs along the Scheldt quay between Het Steen and the Noorderterras, passing beneath restored 1888 wrought-iron port hangars roofed with vast glass skylights. New beds of salt-tolerant grasses have gone in along it. Long fixed benches face the grey water, and container ships pass in front of them. Sit for a while.
Under the hangars the excavations are left open 2.7m down, exposing the foundations of the vanished Sint-Walburgiskerk and the line of the old city wall. The terrace is free public space, with no ticket and no booking, and it takes a group of any size.
Het Steen stands five minutes south along the quay, the oldest surviving building in Antwerp and the natural start or end of this walk. The squat medieval fortress keeps its round turrets and a stepped arched gateway on the Scheldt bank, and a pale angular extension in concrete and glass is fused onto it, stepping up to a roof terrace that looks over the river and the MAS tower. That terrace and the visitor centre are free and unticketed.
The Antwerp Story, the exhibition inside, is €7 for an adult and €5 for ages 6 to 17. Doors are open daily, 10:00 to 18:00. A group has to book a timeslot.
Marcel, Pazzo and the warehouse tables
Marcel serves French-Belgian classics inside the former Dawsons' Memorial Church, under a high vaulted ceiling, with tall arched windows above white-clothed tables and a long wine wall down one side. The cellar took first place in Star Wine List's 2026 Belgian selection and holds a Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence. It is the best table in the quarter. Mains run €30 to €45, and the tasting menus run higher. Reserve ahead. The church space takes private dining and group bookings. Closed Sundays.
Pazzo occupies a converted dockside warehouse, with steel-framed industrial windows, wooden floors and a long zinc bar, and a separate wine bar upstairs under exposed roof beams. Chef Ingrid Neven runs the kitchen and sommelier Tom d'Hooghe the wine, and the house holds a Michelin Plate and a Gault&Millau listing. Mains are €28 to €40. Booking is essential. Lunch and dinner run Monday to Friday, and the doors stay shut at weekends and on public holidays. Neither Marcel nor Pazzo serves on a Sunday.
Wah Kel on Verversrui and Restaurant Athene
Wah Kel (Verversrui) has been open since 1923, the oldest Chinese restaurant in Antwerp, held by one family for three generations before a recent handover. Gold Chinese characters sit on a dark fascia on a red-light street, and inside, the dark wood panelling, the paper lanterns and the red-topped tables have gone unchanged for decades. This is what remains of the port's Chinese seafaring community, still trading among the windows. Mains are €12 to €22. The dining room is large and sittings run long. It opens late and closes on Tuesdays.
Restaurant Athene (Sint-Paulusplaats) is a minute from the church, a corner taverna with blue-and-white trim, pavement tables under an awning and closely set tables indoors in charcoal grill smoke. The family kitchen builds mixed grills and meze for sharing. Mains are €16 to €28. It closes Monday and Tuesday. Book ahead for a larger table.
The Skipper, Het Bos and Cargo Club
The Skipper (Falconplein) opens mid-afternoon and runs to 03:00, which makes it the first and the last drink of most nights here. The corner café sets a wide pavement terrace under big windows, and the long bar is lined with Belgian taps. Beers are €3 to €6. The terrace is the best people-watching on Falconplein. The room is wheelchair accessible.
Het Bos (Ankerrui) programmes left-field concerts, film, exhibitions and club nights in a raw former industrial building. The Bosbar has scuffed concrete floors, mismatched furniture, hand-made posters and strip lighting. Upstairs the concert room is a black box. A communal kitchen serves cheap meals to whoever turns up, and the house is deliberately open. Concert tickets are €10 to €20, and club nights are ticketed separately. The KRAAK festival is among the 2026 dates. For the money, it is the most interesting night in the quarter.
Cargo Club has run since 1993 on a narrow Schipperskwartier side street, took its present name after a 2017 refit, and still programmes Red & Blue as the flagship LGBTQ+ night in Antwerp. The shell is an old blacksmith's workshop and warehouse, fitted with a huge LED wall and a laser rig, with a raised DJ booth above a floor built for 1,200. Nights are mainly Thursdays and Saturdays, 23:00 to 05:00, later on Saturdays. Entry is €10 to €20 and drinks €5 to €10. The club is used to groups, including stag and hen crowds. The door can be selective on a busy Saturday. Buy tickets online for themed nights.
Sleeping inside the quarter
B&B Suites FEEK (Oudeleeuwenrui) has four open-plan loft suites in a historic townhouse, with designer furniture, a free-standing spa bath set inside the bedroom and tall shuttered windows over the warehouse street. Rooms are €160 to €175 a night. Pazzo and Marcel are on the doorstep and the MAS stands 350m north. The four suites take a couple or a small group booking the whole house.
Hotel 't Sandt (Zand) is a 17th-century white Neo-Rococo former customs house and soap factory with a scrolled gable, built around a secluded Italianate courtyard of potted palms. The roof terrace frames the cathedral spire. It has 30 rooms, the De Rubenszaal function room and covered parking on site. Rooms are €200 to €255. It sits south of the quarter by Het Steen, on a quieter street.
Opening days and what to book
The closures shape this walk more than the distances do: weekday-only hours at the FelixArchief and Pazzo, Sundays off at Marcel and Normo, Tuesdays off at Wah Kel, Monday and Tuesday off at Restaurant Athene. Book Marcel, Pazzo, a guided church visit, the archive reading room and any group timeslot at Het Steen before you travel.
See the Antwerp guide and the Antwerp hotel search.
Gallery
Schipperskwartier in pictures
Schipperskwartier — your questions
How much does it cost to go inside Sint-Pauluskerk?
Adults pay €5, students and groups of 15 or more €3, and under-18s nothing. Guided visits need booking in advance. Tourists cannot enter during Sunday mass at 10:30 or Wednesday vespers at 17:00, and winter hours are Friday to Sunday only, 14:00 to 17:00.
What can you see in the Schipperskwartier for free?
The Scheldekaaien Northern Hangars and Walking Terrace on Jordaenskaai reopened on 10 July 2026, and excavations there expose the foundations of the vanished Sint-Walburgiskerk and the old city wall 2.7m down. The FelixArchief opens its glass-roofed inner street and ground floor Tuesday to Friday, 08:30 to 16:30. The visitor centre and roof terrace at Het Steen need no ticket.
Is the Schipperskwartier still a red-light area?
Verversrui is a red-light street, and Wah Kel has traded among the windows there since 1923. The same few streets hold Sint-Pauluskerk and its Calvary garden, the FelixArchief, the arts venue Het Bos on Ankerrui and the restaurants on the Oudeleeuwenrui stretch.
Where can you stay inside the quarter?
B&B Suites FEEK on Oudeleeuwenrui has four loft suites at €160 to €175 a night, with Pazzo and Marcel on the doorstep. Hotel 't Sandt, south of the quarter on Zand by Het Steen, has 30 rooms at €200 to €255, covered parking on site and the De Rubenszaal function room.
Which places have to be booked in advance?
Marcel takes reservations and closes Sundays. Pazzo needs booking and serves Monday to Friday, so no weekends or public holidays. The FelixArchief reading room requires a reservation, guided church visits need booking ahead, groups take a timeslot at Het Steen, and Cargo Club sells its themed nights online. Normo Coffee takes no bookings at all.
