TLR Challenge: 6 – Antwerp

We visited Antwerp on a couple of occasions, checking the weather forecast looking for a better alternative than cloudy and dull, but sometimes you just have to go with cloudy and dull. On the first visit we defeated the weather by going indoors (see my earlier post “KMSKA, Antwerp”) but this time we wanted to explore the city.

We went to the Port Authority headquarters (featured image and below). As you have probably spotted, with your finely tuned perceptive photographic eyes, this is no ordinary office building. About 40 minutes’ walk north from the central train station in the area of the docks the building was designed by Zaha Hadid with building completed in 2016 and the surrounding area renamed Zaha Hadidplein. The traditional looking building below was protected from destruction, a former fire station, so incorporated into the contemporary structure above. The ground floor is open during normal office hours and has a good coffee shop (and pastries). Guided tours of the entire building are available but “good physical condition” (many staircases) is a necessity.

According to mythology the river was once dominated by a giant demanding payment from anyone who passed. A Roman soldier cut off the giant’s hand and threw it in the river – “hand thrown” in Dutch is “hand werpen” which became corrupted into the city’s name, Antwerpen. The hand statue is in the Hadidplein.

Awarded first place as the most beautiful, and fourth place as the greatest train station in the world according to different magazines, Antwerp central station attracts many photographers as well as travelers. Indeed it was here I was accosted by a photographer with a 100mpxl Hasselblad and his students armed with Sony alphas who were interested in my ancient camera. The station, shoe-horned into an old building solved problems of lack of space by having tracks at three different levels – one above the ground floor, and a first and second basement. The lowest level also includes tracks for high speed through trains (national and international, including Eurostar).

Antwerp old town has a large central square surrounded by Dutch style architecture, a rabbit warren of nearby narrow cobbled streets, and the cathedral containing many major works of art including Rubens’ magnificent “The Raising of the Cross” as well as three other major works by Rubens.

Images taken on a Rolleiflex GX, film processed in Bergger PMK pyro, unless stated otherwise.

Share this post: