The Rubens House is currently undergoing a thorough renovation. The redesign of the garden started at the beginning of this year. First, large-scale earthworks took place for the installation of buffer tanks, infiltration basins and the fountain. An excellent opportunity for archaeologists to conduct research into what once happened in this garden. After the goatskin tannery from the 14th century, remains of a Calvinist temple from the period of the religious conflict were also found.

In the southern zone of the garden, four brick pillars in 16th-century masonry were uncovered. The pillars are square, 1 by 1 meter, and were preserved up to a height of 1.30 – 2 meters. They stood equidistant from each other, forming a semicircle. It quickly became clear that these were the remains of a Calvinist temple.

The temple dates from the period of 1566 when the iconoclasm broke out in Antwerp. To calm the mood, the Protestants were given permission to build six temples within the walls of the city. One of them was located on the grounds behind the Wapper, on the site of the later Rubens Garden. The temples had an octagonal floor plan and were mainly constructed of wood. The brick pillars supported the roof.

Barely a year later, in 1567, governor Margaret of Parma ordered the Protestant churches to be demolished and all traces of the reform erased. So it happened, and the temples were no longer visible for a long time. Until 1939 when Emiel Van Averbeke redesigned the Rubens Garden and saw four brick pillars. 

He made a sketch and assumed that it was the remains of the Calvinist temple. The authenticity of his find and registration was long doubted, but current excavations could confirm this theory. The brick pillars of the Calvinist temple were therefore indeed preserved in the subsurface of the Rubens Garden. A remarkable find that makes a tumultuous piece of history tangible again.

Historian and mayor Bart De Wever (N-VA): “The discovery of the Calvinist temple takes us back to a pivotal moment in Antwerp history. At the beginning of September 1566, after the Iconoclasm, William of Orange had proclaimed a cautious religious peace.” 

“This gave Calvinists and Lutherans a place to hold their worship services for the first time within the city walls. It was the time of the so-called ‘Miracle Year’. However, that term hides an uncomfortable truth. Because the gap gradually became unbridgeable between the moderate policy in Antwerp and the unwavering attitude of King Philip II of Spain in Madrid to suppress every heresy in the Low Countries.” 

The Antwerp city council had been trying for decades to reconcile trade interests with the rise of various Protestant communities. But that policy would be permanently abandoned after the Wonder Year. When governor Margaret of Parma regained possession of Antwerp in April 1567 and William of Orange fled to Germany, tolerance was over. The Calvinist temple was demolished and converted into cash to pay the wages of its soldiers. Ironically, it was Rubens, whose father Jan fled the Blood Council of governor Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel, 3rd Duke of Alba due to his Calvinist beliefs, who built his home and studio on that site in the seventeenth century. The most impressive paintings of the Catholic Counter-Reformation were created above the foundations of a Calvinist temple. Its remains still remind us today of the importance of democratic values of respect, tolerance, freedom and equality.”

14th century goatskin tannery

Earlier this year, excavation took place in the central, eastern and northern zones of the garden. The archaeologists found a 19th-century brick cellar, a 16th-century dividing wall and a large number of archaeological layers and pits to a reasonable depth. 

These are late medieval pits with a high concentration of waste material and remains of combustion. They point to artisanal activities in this zone during the late Middle Ages.

One pothole was notable. The filling contained hundreds of horn kernels and goat feet. This find indicates that a tanner was working at this location in the late Middle Ages. 

Animal skins were delivered from the countryside to the tanners in the city with the horns and legs still attached, this functioned as a quality label. The tanner left these protrusions until he had finished the hides, then he removed them, sold the horn to the horn worker and threw the horn kernels and legs into a waste pit. 

Because it concerns goats, we know that it concerns the finer, white leather. It is a special find for our knowledge of late medieval Antwerp, as until now no tanneries could be located in the city. This is also important for broader knowledge of the late Middle Ages, tanneries with goatskin are rare and have never been found on this scale in an urban context in Flanders.