Antwerp
— — a port city dressed in baroque and diamond light.
Not only on a wall.
“A medieval port city on the Scheldt that became one of Europe's richest places in the sixteenth century and still moves about 84 percent of the world's rough diamonds through a few streets near the central station. Rubens lived and worked here; his Descent from the Cross still hangs in the Cathedral of Our Lady, where the spire rises 123 metres above the Grote Markt.
Antwerp, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Antwerp is the second-largest city in Belgium and the capital of Antwerp Province in Flanders, sitting on the right bank of the river Scheldt about 88 kilometres downstream of its mouth on the North Sea. The metropolitan area holds roughly 530,000 people. The Port of Antwerp-Bruges, formed by merger in 2022, is the second-busiest port in Europe after Rotterdam, handling around 290 million tonnes of cargo a year. The old town centres on the Grote Markt and the Cathedral of Our Lady.
The Cathedral of Our Lady is the tallest Gothic church in the Low Countries, its north spire reaching 123 metres. Construction ran from 1352 to 1521 and the south tower was never completed. Four major paintings by Peter Paul Rubens hang inside, including the Descent from the Cross of 1612 and the Elevation of the Cross of 1610. The Grote Markt outside is framed by guild houses in stepped Flemish Renaissance gables, and the Brabo Fountain at its centre tells the city's founding legend.
Antwerp Central Station, opened in 1905 and called by some the cathedral of trains, is a working stone-and-iron landmark on most arrivals. The Diamond Quarter sits a short walk from the station and handles around 84 percent of the world's rough diamond trade. The Rubens House, where the painter lived from 1611 until his death in 1640, is open as a museum near the cathedral. Spring and early autumn are mild; winters are damp and grey, often hovering near 5°C.