Antwerp, city in northern Belgium, administrative center of the province of Antwerpen, on the Schelde River, also called the Escaut River, near the North Sea and Brussels. One of Europe's major seaports, Antwerp is the chief port and second largest city of Belgium. It is connected with the industrial regions of southeastern Belgium by the Albert Canal, which links it with Liège; Antwerp also trades actively with the Ruhr district in Germany. Grain and unrefined metals are major imports; exports include machinery, textiles, and other manufactured products. Antwerp is especially noted for such industries as diamond cutting, shipbuilding, automobile assembly, and the manufacture of metal goods, electronic equipment, chemicals, and dyes.
Among the outstanding features of Antwerp is its system of boulevards, which replaced the walls that formerly encircled the city. Perhaps the most interesting edifice in Antwerp is the Gothic-style Cathedral of Notre Dame (14th and 15th century), which is surmounted by a spire 121.9 m (400 ft) high. The cathedral contains several paintings by the 17th-century Flemish artist Rubens, who spent most of his life in Antwerp. Other points of interest in the city include the town hall and the Gothic-style Church of Saint Paul, both completed in the 16th century, and the many guild houses dating from the Middle Ages that still line the marketplace. The city has a museum of fine arts with paintings by several of the Flemish masters and botanical and zoological gardens.
