
Het Steen
Medieval riverside fortress gatehouse with a former prison, modern visitor wing and Scheldt views.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Het Steen in Antwerp, the city's oldest building, follows the Scheldt, the river the fortress was raised to watch in the early thirteenth century. It turns on the nineteenth century, when silt crept into the port and the city decided what it was willing to give up to keep big ships coming. Best heard on the quay with the river at your back and the grey walls in front of you.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Steenplein
Riverside square before a medieval castle, guarded by a bronze statue of a folklore giant.
Lange Wapper Statue
Bronze folklore giant by sculptor Albert Poels, guarding the entrance of a medieval riverside castle.
Eilandje
Former dock island of Napoleonic basins and brick warehouses, now museums, restaurants and lofts.
Felix Pakhuis
Nineteenth-century dockside warehouse with a glass-roofed passage, now home to the city archive.
Stadspark
Triangular romantic-style park on a former fortress lunette, with a pond and an iron suspension bridge.
Bonapartedok
Napoleonic harbour basin with stone quays, now a yacht marina and summer open-water swimming spot.