I'm going to Belgium in mid-January and am planning my time between Brussels, Antwerp & Ghent (already been to Bruges twice!). While researching museums in Antwerp, I found two described in an older (2006) edition of the Insight cityguide that sound interesting but I can't locate any information about them on-line. Perhaps they're closed? I thought that if anyone can help, it's the Fodorites! Both are/were next to the Ethnographic Museum - one is the Volkskundemuseum (folk museum) and the other is the Ruinhuis (underground tour of subterranean canals via boat & foot). Any help you can give would me greatly appreciated. THanks.

I'll ask my freind in Antwerp and see id she has any info you could use. I love Antwerp!

highly reecommend Rubenshuis...the artist Ruben's studio and home..fascinating. You'll even learn something of the "assembly line" method he used (as did others of that period). It's a short walk from the RR Station. on a side street (Wapper Straat). There will be signs if I recall.

Another interesting take-in is the slick and modern Diamond Museum at Koningin Astrid Plein, or Diamonland (On Appelman Straat in the Diamond Dealer's part of town). From the station. turn left down Pelikaanstraat, ask anyone in the little dealer's kiosks. Most are Hassidic Jews recognizable by the their all-black clothing, and understand English and Yiddish. The street off Pelikaabstraat that leads to the Museum offers the best deli in Belgium..Hoffy's...kosher..and great menu at reasonable prices...on Kievitstraat.

stu

Hi there!
The Ethnographic/Volkskunde Museum has indeed been closed. Unfortunately the brandnew museum called MAS will only open its doors in May 2011.
As for a walk underground the city (called Ruien), that is still possible, both for groups and for individuals. You can find more information on this website: http://visit.antwerpen.be/Bezoekerss...ons-ruien.html
Or contact [email protected]

My friend always comes through! We also really loved the http://visit.antwerpen.be/Bezoekerss...kox-House.html

It was right across from our hotel and is a lovely house with grat art exhibits. We also liked the area around the waterfront with several museums and other places open to the public. THe city also has great fooD!!!

Wow - what speedy and helpful responses!! Sorry to hear that the Volkskunde Museum is closed but used the link above to email Ruien about their individual walks. Am planning on
wandering near the Grote Market, Our Lady Cathedral and heading south to see the Stephen Jones (millinery) exhibit at MoMu,the Musuem Mayer van den Bergh, and then over toward the Central Station. If I'm not pooped by then, I'll see Rubenshuis (not a fan of his style) and perhaps Diamondland. Thanks all!

The fine arts museum in Antwerpen is a treasure -- a great old-style, unrenovated, imperial museum from a lost time, a pure joy to walk through, with fascinating art.

zeppole, I believe the fine arts museum in Antwerp is now closed for a major renovation. I'll be visiting Antwerp/Ghent/Brussels and Bruges in April and I was disappointed to learn that I wouldn't be able to see it.

Thanks for helping out the OP with that update -- and what sad news for me. It was one of the last great unrenovated museums, with miles of grey velvet wall coverings, skylit galleries with paintings densely hung chock-a-block from floor to ceiling, enormous round tufted red sofas set in the middle of parquet floors for lounging while you admired the monumental works.

I'm glad I saw I saw before they turned it into just another airport-department-store museum.

Let's hope they leave this alone:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3472/...bf471402_o.jpg

and this

http://upload.spottedbylocals.com/An...y-ottomer).jpg

and this

http://www.fleecircus.com/lee/public_access/frame1.jpg

and this

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4067/...87d3d9f4d3.jpg

zeppole, that looks fantastic. Now I'm doubly sorry I'll never see it!

Oh no! The Royal Museum was top on our to-do list for our trip to Antwerp in July 2011. Checking the museum's website, since the major renovations won't begin until May, I guess there's no hope of it being done by end of July....sigh...

Renovations won't be done until 2017.

HOWEVER - I should quickly add -- the paintings will be shown in other locations, and perhaps some of museum will stay open during the works.

Google up information.

Thanks zeppole. A six-year renovation certainly qualifies for a major undertaking. I do hope some rooms remain open or can be found elsewhere, especially the pieces by the Old Masters.

I found out that some of the work from the Fine Arts Museum will be on display at the Cathederal of Our Lady Antwerp (I've attached the info from their website below)

REUNION
From Quinten Metsijs to Peter Paul Rubens
Masterpieces from the Royal Museum reunited in the Cathedral
Cathedral of Our Lady Antwerp

The Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp will be hosting the exhibition REUNION. From Quinten Metsijs to Peter Paul Rubens. Masterpieces from the Royal Museum reunited in the Cathedral. The exhibition has been placed under the High Patronage of Her Majesty Queen Paola.

The Bishopric of Antwerp was founded in 1559. In honour of this event, the Church of Our Lady was re-baptized the Cathedral of Our Lady 450 years ago. An anniversary that will be celebrated with a prestigious exhibition!

During its 450-year existence, the Cathedral has become a veritable treasury of religious art, which was painted and sculpted by renowned masters. Until the French Revolution, they were commissioned with decorating the pillars, chapels and walls of the Cathedral. In the wake of this upheaval, several altarpieces were transferred to museums, among which the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp.

The close collaboration with the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp has now made it possible to return eight of the most beautiful altarpieces in museum’s collection to the Cathedral. Next to these works, the Cathedral will also be showcasing eight works that are featured in its permanent collection. These are mostly imposing works, mainly triptychs, measuring up to 5 metres wide and 3 metres high. These works will be integrated in the cathedral's current interior. This unique 'in situ' reunion will give visitors a spectacular overview of masterpieces created by the Antwerp school during the Golden Age.

Dr Ria Fabri and Dr Nico Van Hout, who are the curators of his exhibition, will provide an insight into the guilds’ and brotherhoods’ patronage of the cathedral by means of the altarpieces on display. Visitors will thus be able to re-discover the interwoven nature of society, religion, art and culture during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The exhibition also sheds light on the iconographical and social-economic developments over the centuries.
The exhibition’s beautifully illustrated catalogue will gather several art-historical and historical contributions on workshop practices, patrons, consumer patterns and the guilds.
At the same time, the Rockox House will be scheduling the exhibition Gifts of God. Private patronage of the Antwerp churches during the sixteenth and seventeenth century. Both exhibitions complement one another beautifully and bear testimony to the splendid talent available in Antwerp at the time and of its economic important for the city's development.

though a short tram ride into the suburbs Middleheim Outdoor Statue Park is IME and that of many one of Europe's premier alfresco statue parks. Middleheim is lost in most guidebooks coverage of Antwerpen IMO

Those of you who had planned to visit the KMSKA (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen = Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp) ... special exhibitions are held throughout the renovation period. Until January 23rd, a unique exhibition of the German artist Anselm Kiefer, for instance. From January 29th until April 30th: Museums of the 21st century: concepts, projects, buildings.
Check out the website regularly to see what's up next.
http://www.kmska.be/en/tentoonstellingen/Future/