Walking the Meir and Hopland in Antwerp

Starting on the Meir

The Meir is fully pedestrianised, with tram tracks at either end and pale stone rococo and neoclassical merchant façades above the shopfronts, their stucco garlands intact. It is Flanders' biggest retail street and the spine the rest of the quarter hangs off. Start at the western end, one short block and 300 m from the cathedral. Walking it costs nothing and the shops run €€. Saturday is the busiest day, so come on a weekday morning if you want the façades.

Stadsfeestzaal Shopping is a beaux-arts festival hall from 1908 that opens straight off the street, under an enormous curved glass dome with gold-leaf cornices and a fountain on the central floor. A broad marble staircase climbs out of it and the shopfronts tuck in under the arcades. The hall burned almost to the ground in 2000 and reopened in 2007 as shops and cafés; it is a listed monument. Entry is free and the retail runs €€ to €€€. Open Monday to Saturday 08:00 to 20:00, Sunday 10:00 to 18:00. Walk in for the dome and leave without buying anything.

Enter the Handelsbeurs Antwerpen (Twaalfmaandenstraat) from the turning off the Meir. The hall dates from 1531 and was the world's first purpose-built commodity exchange. It stood empty for 20 years before a restoration reopened it in 2019. Slender stone arcades on two levels enclose a galleried neo-Gothic trading courtyard under a vast glass-and-iron canopy, the floor polished stone. Entry is free. Public access runs at weekends and in school holidays, 10:00 to 18:00, and stops whenever a private or public event takes the hall.

Paleis op de Meir and the kitchens under it

Paleis op de Meir (Meir) has a white rococo façade with a carved stone balcony directly on the street. Napoleon bought and rebuilt it in 1799, and Belgian kings used it later. Inside is a gilded Empire-era mirrored ballroom with a parquet floor and crystal chandeliers. Check the dates before you build a day around it: Herita opens it seasonally, and on Saturdays from 11:00 to 17:00 only. Entry is €6 for adults, €3 for ages three to 18 and €15 for a family. A lift reaches the first floor and the cellar. Group visits are arranged on request at [email protected].

The Chocolate Line (Meir 50) trades out of Napoleon's own kitchens in the same building, vaulted service rooms and old ranges with an open chocolate laboratory on view. Dominique Persoone calls himself a shock-o-latier, and the fillings run to wasabi, chilli and tobacco. The packaging is shocking pink and black, and prices sit at €€. It is a small shop, walk-in, closed Sunday and Monday.

Hopland and the Rubenshuis garden

Rubenshuis (Hopland 13) is the headline sight of the quarter and the reason most people turn up Hopland at all. What is open is the garden, the library and the Rubens Experience. The Italian-Baroque portico, painted stone crowded with sculpted gods, opens onto a formal box-hedge garden with a domed pavilion, the red-brick Flemish wing standing alongside. Entry is €12 combined, or €8 for the garden only. In-house professional guides are bookable, which is how to get the building explained while its rooms stay closed.

Bruegel on Lange Gasthuisstraat

Museum Mayer van den Bergh (Lange Gasthuisstraat) is two minutes off Hopland and holds Bruegel's 'Mad Meg'. The house is a neo-Gothic town house from 1904 with a stepped gable, dark oak-panelled rooms and leaded stained glass, and the lurid red 'Dulle Griet' panel hangs among them. At €8, or €6 for students and seniors, it is the best art for the money in the quarter. It closes on Mondays, and everyone needs an e-ticket, including the visitors who enter free.

Bread and biscuits on Korte Gasthuisstraat

Bakkerij Goossens (Korte Gasthuisstraat) has baked here since 1884, and the loaf to buy is the roggeverdommeke, dense rye studded with raisins. The shopfront runs to 10 square metres behind a 16th-century stepped façade, the dark loaves stacked in a wooden rack, the queue permanently out on the pavement. There is no seating and barely room for four customers. Queue, buy, and eat on the street. Open Tuesday to Saturday 07:00 to 19:00, shut Sunday and Monday, prices €.

Philip's Biscuits (Korte Gasthuisstraat 39) stands two doors along, a narrow shop lined with tall glass jars and printed tins of spiced speculoos and hand-shaped Antwerpse handjes. The hand shape nods to the city's own founding legend of a giant and a severed hand. The tins travel well, and prices are €.

The Bourla on Komedieplaats

Bourlaschouwburg (Komedieplaats) sits right behind Hopland, a semicircular neoclassical theatre from 1834 with a curved colonnade and nine muse statues along the roof balustrade. The auditorium is a red-and-gold horseshoe, and below the stage sits the original wooden stage machinery, Europe's last complete set. Its €67m restoration has slipped again, to after summer 2027. It is still playing for now, with tickets from €12 to €35 through the Toneelhuis box office. Most of the drama is in Dutch, so check for surtitled or non-verbal work before you book.

Den Botaniek on Leopoldstraat

Den Botaniek, also signed as Plantentuin Antwerpen, is three minutes down Leopoldstraat from Hopland and the only real quiet in the shopping quarter. The hospital founded it in 1825 as its medicinal garden, and the old hospital buildings still close it in on every side. Gravel paths run between labelled beds of 2,000 species inside a walled hectare behind tall iron railings, with a small glasshouse conservatory of cacti and exotics at one side. It is free and unticketed, open 08:00 to 20:00 in summer and 08:00 to 17:30 in midwinter.

Eating and drinking on Hopland and De Keyserlei

Grand Café Horta (Hopland) sets brasserie tables under swirling Art Nouveau iron ribs and riveted columns rising to a glass roof, with a pavement terrace out front. The ironwork was salvaged from Victor Horta's demolished Maison du Peuple; the café itself dates from 2000. The kitchen runs straight through from 11:30 to 21:30, which makes it the reliable stop for a late lunch. Prices are €€. It is wheelchair accessible, and the upstairs Art Nouveau Zaal takes seated dinners and standing receptions.

Bier Central (De Keyserlei) is the serious beer address here, on the direct eastern continuation of the Meir towards Central Station. A wall of 33 chrome taps backs the long bar, 333 bottles sit shelved behind it with branded glassware per brewery, and the big terrace spreads onto the tree-lined boulevard. Belgian classics fill the food menu and reservations are taken online. Open daily from 11:30 to midnight, and to 01:00 on Fridays and Saturdays. Prices are €€.

Staying in the quarter

Botanic Sanctuary Antwerp (Leopoldstraat) occupies a 12th-century monastery complex immediately south of Hopland, brick cloister arcades around a courtyard and a walled garden backing onto the botanic garden. The 2022 conversion fitted 108 rooms, four restaurants and a spa with an indoor pool under vaulted ceilings. Michelin dining is in the building. Rooms run from €400 to €670 a night.

Hotel Julien (Korte Nieuwstraat) is two knocked-together 16th-century houses off the Meir, pared back to white interiors around a planted inner courtyard. It opened in 2004 as one of Antwerp's first boutique hotels and holds 20 rooms and one suite, with a private spa. The rooftop terrace looks straight at the cathedral spire, the best view of its kind in the quarter. From €200 a night.

Hilton Antwerp Old Town (Groenplaats) fills the belle-époque former Grand Bazar department store at the western end of the Meir: grand stone façade outside, atrium lobby within, the cathedral tower filling the square. Pick it for the listed high-ceilinged ballroom, and for sleeping between the shopping spine and the cathedral. Rooms run from €115 to €200.

Opening days and booking

Three sights fix the shape of a visit: the palace on Saturdays only and in season, the exchange hall at weekends and in school holidays, and the Mayer van den Bergh closed on Mondays. Book a Rubenshuis guide and any Bourla ticket in advance, and keep the two Korte Gasthuisstraat food shops off a Sunday or Monday plan.

See the Antwerp guide and the Antwerp hotel search.