All activities / Museums & Galleries / Antwerp
Museums & Galleries in Antwerp
A port city on the river Scheldt in Flanders, Belgium's second city and a historic centre of trade, diamonds and fashion. The home of Rubens keeps a dense cluster of art and design museums, a grand central station and one of the great fashion academies in Europe.
Why here
Antwerp punches far above its size in art and design, and two museums make the case in an afternoon. The Royal Museum of Fine Arts, KMSKA, reopened in 2022 after an eleven-year rebuild and hangs Flemish masters at full force: a fifteen-metre Rubens hall of Baroque altarpieces, works by Van Dyck and Jordaens, and the largest James Ensor collection anywhere, from the grotesque masks to The Oyster Eater. A short walk into the old town, MoMu tells the other half of Antwerp's story, its outsized role in fashion, built around the Antwerp Six who broke out of the Royal Academy in the 1980s and designers like Dries Van Noten and Ann Demeulemeester who followed. One museum shows why Antwerp mattered to painting for four centuries, the other why it still shapes how people dress, and together they explain a city that has always traded on making beautiful things.
Best months
Both museums are indoor and open year-round, closed on Mondays, so this works in any weather. KMSKA is large and rewards a half day on its own; MoMu's shows change two or three times a year, so check what is on before timing a visit around a particular exhibition. Weekday mornings are quietest at both. Buy KMSKA tickets online in advance, as timed entry can sell out at weekends and during school holidays.
Getting there & around
Antwerp Central station is a short tram or ten-minute ride from both museums, and the city centre is easily walked. KMSKA stands on the Leopold de Waelplaats in the Zuid district south of the centre, reachable by tram; MoMu is on the Nationalestraat in the old town, walking distance from the Grote Markt. No car is needed. Book KMSKA's timed entry online, and allow a full afternoon if you want to see both properly.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (2)
KMSKA
OrganizerThe Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, known as KMSKA, reopened in 2022 after an eleven-year, 100-million-euro renovation that inserted a stark white modern wing inside the old palace on the Leopold de Waelplaats. It holds more than 8,000 works from the fourteenth to the twentieth century, anchored by a soaring Rubens hall of Baroque altarpieces and the world's largest collection of James Ensor, including The Oyster Eater and The Intrigue. Van Dyck, Jordaens and Fouquet hang alongside.
MoMu
OrganizerMoMu, the Fashion Museum of Antwerp, opened in 2002 on the Nationalestraat in the fashion district and reopened in 2021 after a full renovation. Run by the Province of Antwerp, it collects and exhibits Belgian and international fashion, with a focus on the Antwerp Six, the six Royal Academy graduates, among them Dries Van Noten and Ann Demeulemeester, who put the city on the fashion map in the 1980s. It sits alongside the academy's fashion department and runs two or three major shows a year.