Kloosterstraat
Antiques-and-design shopping street on the grounds of a vanished medieval abbey near the river.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Kloosterstraat in Antwerp asks why a street of antique dealers and vintage shops carries the name of a monastery you cannot see. It reaches back to Saint Michael's Abbey, founded in eleven twenty-four, and the emperors and princes who lodged in its riverside guest house. Along the way you'll meet Napoleon's shipbuilders and the city archaeologists who dug into the nearby quay in twenty twenty-one. Best heard walking slowly past the shopfronts.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Vlaeykensgang
Hidden sixteenth-century alley of cobbled lanes and courtyards, saved from demolition in the 1960s.
Groenplaats
Tree-lined square on a former churchyard beside the cathedral, with a Rubens statue at its centre.
Vrijdagmarkt
Historic square hosting a Friday-morning street auction of second-hand goods since the sixteenth century.
Bonapartedok
Napoleonic harbour basin with stone quays, now a yacht marina and summer open-water swimming spot.
Vogelmarkt
Sunday street market of flowers, antiques and textiles, once famed for its live bird and pigeon trade.
Cogels-Osylei
Belle Epoque residential avenue lined with Art Nouveau and eclectic townhouses named after flowers.