BEAUTIFUL ANTWERP.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 122, 16 October 1914, Page 3

BEAUTIFUL ANTWERP.

A FOOL OF COMMERCE. CITY 01" TKimBtUE SIEGES. 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 anciemit town than a long liisbofrjyi of vicissitude, of prosperity ojternating with utter ruin. Founded in the seventh cenitury, it was captured amd destroyed by tJlt> ■ Vikings in the eighth, but revivo® j n trade and importance gradual!", jt 9 commercial prosperity reaJly, f rolni the eleventh century, ajld j n si e sixteenth century, it wa'j the largest seaport ;®d the ricVasif city ini the north I <if 'Europe, The. inlluemce of the wealth fif -Die NxteCnth century still (survives in its lino old buikMHgs, guild-houses, mansions of t'he great merchants, churches, and avenues 1 . It was in the sixteenth century, howevur, that Spain embarked on tic conquest of the Netherlands, and great destruction was dons 'by Spanish atm/ies when tt W&? taken in 1576, and when it was again besieged by the tro»ps of tlie Duke of Parma in 1985. The results of long wans destroyed itlhe commerce of the city, and the population dwindled rapidly, until towards the end of the sixteenth century, its inhabitants numbered only 56,000. A filrtli'.T blow to its independence and prosperity was given in IMB, when the independence of the united prornces of .the Netherlands was established by the Treaty of Mmnster, ami Antwerp was for, ».4 to close the river Scheldt to navigation.

LATER SIBGES. It had punk to a city of mall importance «t. Uie time of the Napoleonic wars, but Napoleon, recognising how important Uic situation, of She city was in warfare, expended, a large sum of money in constructing docits and bwthagei for slipping, 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 Franch forte occupying the city. WitSi the grow'uh. of trade in the Dutoh East Indies, t.'b« city began again to pro-p-ess towards prosperity, but it had once more to suffer from tlio effects of war in the revolution of IS3O, when it was occupied by the Belgian revolutionaries, bombarded by the Dutch, and then besieged by the French.

MODERN PROSPERITY. Thirty years lat«r Antwerp had again recovered from these disasters, and in 1863 it bought back from Holland the right of ■ collecting navigation dues on the iSohJdl., which it had granted as one of the terms of peace in 1839. The annual trade of Antwerp at tlhe present day is valued at over £100,000,000 stirling, about two-thirds of this amount being imports. In 1913, the shipping of the port amounted to 7306 vessels:, with a total tonnage of 14,14'0^1i).

j CENTRE OF COMMERCE AND ART. The vast docks and dockyards constructed by Napoleon still exist to tlhe benefit of Antwerp, but. of recent years the shipping facilities have been greatly extenih.-d. Wliarves constructed in 1877, and enlarged in IJJOI, iliave a length oi over three mMes, and permit steamers drawing 20ft. to lie alongside and the city is also joined to Holland at the River Maas by great canals. The principal manufactures are silks, velvets, laces, soaps, leather, cigars, spirits and woollen and cotton fabrics, liinen, carpets, cutlery and arms, and tlicrc are also exlmsive shipbuilding yards and sugar relineries. But is is an art centre as well as a centre of eoinimcrce ■that Antwerp is famous—the Cathedral has some of .Reuben's finest pictures, and the Royal Museum has another great collection of this master's works, as well as collections of paintings by Van Ey&k, Jan Steen, Rogun van der Weyden, Rembrandt, Franz Hals, and other famous Dutch painters, some oi -whose works have Bpocial galleries Bet aside for them.

AIttIIITTCTUKAL FEATURES. The pictum-que city has magnificent boulevards and avenues anil its numeroiis elum-hitr, convents, greait public buildings, and its monuments to Renbens, V:i,n Dyke, Teirieis, and all others contributed to its beauty, and it also litis a profusion of trees ill s:rcet« and parka-. Lis famous Cathedral, comjikt':- ( 'd in 1 'i'rl and not compi eted aunLM 10A2, ifi one of the most perfect examph.n of Gothic a.rehite<-t<UTe in Europe. The Town llall, designed in tile Reir,u's«uicc style, and built in 15M-C), but was largely destroyed during the Spanish Conquest and was restored in 1581. The Guild (Houses make anoUher a.rc.kitectural feature of the eitv, and these old centres of ifclio [merchants are mostly designed in late Gothic, having beeni built in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Ol'ht.r great buildings are the Exchange (built in 1/583, burned in IMS, and rebuilt in the old style in IBSO-7'2), ,the Palace de Justice, and the Royal Palace.

ACSATO'MIES A2TD FORTRESS'KS. Am<mg*t the city's institutions are many academies of painting anil of the tine arts and science, a royal conservator;' of music, and the Royal Mi»x'um,' already mentioned. This Museum, or, Palace of Kino Kr'M, is designed in' Greek Kenan-sanee stvle. ami was built between 1.570 and 1800. The old fortressels of tile city have long, sine*; been converted into boulevards, an l the fortresses constructed of recent yea-rn were designed to make thei ei'y practiisi.?ly impregnable, since it was coasi<h>re.d the main milium,, bulwark of Belgium. mul they stretch in an unbroken line; strengthen! «l by deep moats and an extended liin- of isolated forts round ((lie city, where there are also devices for inundating a, large portion ol H .• adjacent! com.fry in ens:", of necessity. According ti> n'ccmt returns, the pi>;m!atiou of Art wenp, including the b ; g suburbs of Borperliaut and! .licrclicin, wiu about 400,(»0.