Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal

This is first of all a working cathedral, the largest Gothic church in the Low Countries, its single finished spire rising over 120 metres above Antwerp and visible far out across the flat Flemish land. Building it took the better part of two centuries, into the 1520s, and a second tower was never finished for lack of money.

For art, people come for Rubens. Peter Paul Rubens lived and worked in Antwerp at the height of his fame, and the cathedral holds four of his large altarpieces, painted in the years around 1610 to 1620. The 'Descent from the Cross', with the pale dead body of Christ lowered onto a white sheet, is the one most visitors cross the nave to stand in front of. Its companion, the 'Raising of the Cross', hangs nearby, with an 'Assumption' high on the main altar.

The paintings were made for these exact walls, taken away by French troops in the 1790s, and later returned, so they hang once more in the light and the height they were designed to fill.