From 1 April 2023, and it’s no April’s Fool, you can climb the tower or belfry of Antwerp‘s Cathedral of Our Lady. The climbing tours are hosted by Museum Vleeshuis. 

“After almost four years of restoration work, we are once again taking you to the wonderful bell tower of the Antwerp Cathedral. Your tour starts at the museum with a short tour. Then comes the ascent: 515 steps later you are 90 meters above the ground and enjoy a beautiful view of the city”, Museum Vleeshuis says. 

The ascent of the tower starts in Museum Vleeshuis (Butchers’ Hall Museum), where you can learn everything about tower music. You will visit the reconstruction of the last traditional bell foundry of Jacques Sergeys and learn step by step how the large, bronze bells were made and are still being made.

After the short tour, it’s on foot to the cathedral. Step by step you will discover the story of the tower, its versatile belfry function as a fire watch and watchtower, and its impact on the daily life of the Antwerp residents. The icing on the cake is the breathtaking panorama. In clear weather you can even see the Atomium in Brussels.

Practical

• From April 1 to October 1, 2023 on Saturdays and Sundays. Every time at 10 AM and 1.30 PM.
• The tower climb starts in Museum Vleeshuis.
• Price: €14 per person.
• Duration tour and ascent: 2 hours.
• Suitable for children from 8 years. Children between the ages of 8 and 16 must be accompanied by an adult.
• The tower climb requires a good physical condition. Put on comfortable shoes.

Wether the weather…

In bad weather there is a chance that the climb cannot continue for safety reasons. In that case we will contact you and find a new date.

In culture

“Singer La Esterella and writer-poet Tom Lanoye have already praised the beautiful cathedral tower with beautiful words. For the people of Antwerp it is their eternal pride, for many visitors it is a unique example of Gothic architecture. For centuries, the belfry tower has been the means of communication par excellence between the city and its inhabitants. Flags, clockwork, chimes and carillon playing: Antwerp was ‘blew high from the tower’ several times.”

Did you know?

The belfry tower…

• was built in several stages between 1352 and 1518;
• it measures 123 meters and is therefore the highest ecclesiastical monument in the Low Countries;
• has 615 stairs of which 515 can be accessed by visitors;
• has 11 large bells and 49 carillon bells;
• the heaviest bell ‘Carolus‘ weighs no less than 6,434 kg and the oldest bell ‘Maria‘ was cast in 1459;
• has a large carillon that is played every Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoon by the city carillonneurs;
• was recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999;
• underwent a major and much-needed restoration from 2019 to 2022.

Art and museums in Antwerp

• Antwerp museums and sports facilities team up with European Disability Card for accessible leisure activities.
• FOMU 2023 | Reimagined collection, strippers – Nicaragua – Kurdistan and people touching each other.
• ANTWERP 2023 | MoMu fashion museum presents IO Van Oostveldt and Man Ray exhibitions.
• ANTWERP | Rubens House closed for renovation.
• Inside the KMSKA or Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp.
• VIDEO | Inside the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp.
• Museum Mayer van den Bergh.
• ANTWERP | ‘Stories of Refuge’ exhibition at Red Star Line Museum.
• 2023 at the museums of Antwerp.
• 2022 in the museums of Antwerp.
• ANTWERP | ‘Stories of refuge’ exhibition at Red Star Line Museum.
• ANTWERP | Inside Rubens House.
• ANTWERP | Garden of renovated Rubens House to be open air exhibition space.
• ModeMuseum MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp 2021.
• ModeMuseum MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp 2022.
• ‘Freight’ and ‘Listen’ exhibitions at MAS in Antwerp.
• ‘Masculinities: Liberation through Photography’ exhibition at FOMU, Antwerp’s photography museum.
• ANTWERP | Goshka Macuga’s ‘Figures of Absence’ honours underrepresented women in public domain art.
• Museum Plantin-Moretus in Antwerp.
• ‘Eurasia – A Landscape of Mutability’ exhibition at Antwerp’s M HKA modern arts museum.
• ‘Congoville’: contemporary artists walk colonial paths at Middelheim Museum in Antwerp.
• Antwerp’s Letterenhuis ft. Paul van Ostaijen exhibition.
• ModeMuseum MoMu – Fashion Museum Antwerp reopens on 4 and 5 September 2021 with ‘Fashion 2.021 Antwerp – Fashion/Conscious’.
• Museum Plantin-Moretus will exhibit long-lost illustration by Rubens: ‘Opticorum Libri Sex’.
• ‘100 X Congo’ exhibition at Museum Aan de Stroom (MAS) in Antwerp.
• ANTWERP | Museum Vleeshuis up for restoration.
• REVIEW | ‘Cool Japan’ exhibition at Museum Aan de Stroom (MAS) in Antwerp from 18 October 2019 to 19 April 2020. 
• BOOK | ‘Antwerp. An Archaeological View on the Origin of the City’ by Tim Bellens.
• ‘On the road’ at Museum Plantin-Moretus.
• Red Star Line Museum.
• Paleis op de Meir. 
• DIVA, Antwerp Home of Diamonds.
• ANTWERP | Red Star Line Museum of (e)migration.
• ANTWERP | Museum Mayer van den Bergh is expanding into former District Hall.
• Antwerp’s Middelheim Museum rearranges sculpture park by the end of 2023.
• ANTWERP | Diamond museum DIVA reopens on Friday 24 March 2023.