BEAUTIFUL ANTWERP.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 212, 12 October 1914, Page 6

BEAUTIFUL ANTWERP.

A POOL OF COMMERCE. CITY OF TERRIBLE SIEGES. [Written for THE SUN.] Antwerp, one of the first ports of the world and the chief port of Belgium, is situated on the river Scheldt and was very strongly fortified. The ancient town lias a long 1 history of

vicissitude, of prosperity alternating utter ruin. Pounded in the seventh century, it was captured and destroyed by the Vikings in the eighth, but revived in trade and importance gradually. Its commercial prosperity really ; dates from the eleventh century, and in the sixteenth century-it was the largest seaport and the richest city in the north of Europe. The influence of the wealth of the sixteenth century still survives in its fine old buildings, guild-houses, mansions of the great merchants, churches, and avenues. It was in the sixteenth century, however, that Spain embarked on the. conquest of the Netherlands, and great destruction was' done b*y the Spanish armies when it was taken in 1576, aud when it was again besieged by the troops of the Duke of Parma j in 1585. The results' of long warsij destroyed the "commerce of the city, and the population dwindled rapidly, until, towards the end of .the sixteenth century, its inhabitants numbered only about 50,000. A further'. blow to its' independence and prosperity was given in 1648, when the independence of the united'provinces of the Netherlands was established by the Treaty of Munster, and Antwerp was forced to close the River Scheldt to navigation.

Later Sieges. It had sunk to a city of small importance at the time of the Napoleonic wars, but Napoleon, recognising how irivpor.sLnt the situation of the city was inwar : fare, expended a huge sum of money in constructing docks and berthage for shipping. . It was again a centre of war

in 1814, when the Allies were fighting the French, and it was eventually surrendered to the British by the French force occupying the city. With the growth of trade in the Dutch East Indies the city again began to progress towards prosperity, but it had once more to suffer from the "effcts of war in the revolution of 1830, when it was occupied by the Belgian revolutionaries, bombarded by the Dutch, and then besieged by the French. Modern Prosperity. Thirty years later Antwerp had again recovered from these disasters, and in 1803 it bought back from Holland the right of collecting navigation dues on the Scheldt, which it had granted as one of the terms of peace in 1839. The annual trade of Antwerp.at the present day is valued at over £100,000,000 ster- ! line,, about two-thirds of this amount I beino imports. In 1913 the shipping of the port amounted to 7056 vessels, with a total tonange of 14,146,819. Centre of Commerce and Art. The vast docks and dockyards con : strut-ted by Napoleon still exist to the benefit of Antwerp, but.of recent years the shipping facilities have been greatly extended. Wharves constructed in 1877, and enlarged in 1901, have a length of

over three miles,'and permit steamers drawing 20 feet to lie alongside, and the city is also joined up with,' Holland at the River Maas by greareanals. The principal manufactures are silks, velvets, laces, soaps, leather, cigars, spirits, woollen and cotton fabrics, linen, carpets, cutlery and arms, and there are also extensive shipbuilding yards and sugar refineries. But it is as an art centre as well as a centre of commerce that Antwerp is famous — the Cathedra! contains some of Reubens 's jinest pictures, and the Royal Museum has another great collection of this master's works, as well as collections of paintings by Van Eyck, Jan

Steen, Roger van der Weyden, Rembrandt, Franz Hals, and other famous Dutch painters, some of whose works have special galleries set aside for them. Architectural Features. The picturesque city has magnificent boulevards and avenues, and its numerous churches, convents, great public

buildings, and its monuments to Reubens, Van Dyke, Teniers, and others all contribute to its beauty, and it has also a profusion of trees in streets and, parks. Its famous Cathedral, conir nienced in 1352 and not completednintir 1592, is one of the most perfect examples of Gothic architecture in Europe. The Town Hall, designed in the Renaisr style, was built in 1561-65, butwas largely destroyed' during ihe Span-j

ish Conquest and was restored in 1581. The Guild Houses make another architectural feature of the city, and these old centres of the merchants are mostly designed in late Gothic, having been

I ' ■-."■'■■.■' built in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Other great buildings are the Exchange (built in 1553, burned in 1858, and rebuilt in the old style in 1869-72), the Palais de Justice, and the Royal Palace. Academies and Portresses. Amongst the city's, institutions are many academies of painting and of the fine arts and science, a royal conservatory of music, and the Royal Museum, already mentioned. :This museum, or Palace of Fine Arts, is designed in Greek Renaissance style and was built between 1879 and 1890. The old fortresses of the city have long since been converted into boulevards, and the fortresses constructed of recent years were designed to make the city practically impregnable, since it was considered the main military bulwark of Belgium, and they stretch in an unbroken line, strengthened by deep moats and an extended line of isolated forts round the city, while there are also devices for inundating a large portion of the adjacent country in case of necessity. According to recent returns, the population of Antwerp, including the big suburbs of Borgerhaut and Berchem, w ; as about 400,000.