In this neighborhood southeast of Antwerp's city center, the 19th-century entrepreneur Baron Edouard Osy and his sister, Josephine Cogels, inherited an old castle, demolished it, and built some refreshingly eccentric houses reflecting the eclectic tastes of the era. There are houses in Renaissance, Greek classical, and Venetian styles, but most of all, there are Art Nouveau buildings, especially at the southern end of Cogels Osylei and Waterloostraat. Berchem is the first stop on the railway line to Brussels.
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