From 6 February to 17 May 2026, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp or Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen (KMSKA) presents ‘The Fall of Alba’s Citadel. Image and Memory in Turbulent Times‘, an exhibition that explores how power, conflict and propaganda have shaped the image and memory of Antwerp’s citadel over more than three centuries.

For centuries, a vast citadel dominated Antwerp’s southern quarter, on the site of today’s Zuid neighbourhood. Built in the sixteenth century on the orders of Fernando Álvarez de Toledo y Pimentel, 3rd Duke of Alba, governor of the Spanish Netherlands, the five-pointed fortress was designed by the Italian military architect Francesco Paciotto and bristled with cannon. Crucially, those guns were aimed not outward, but towards the city itself. The citadel housed Spanish troops and served as a constant reminder of imperial authority during the Eighty Years’ War, when the Low Countries sought to free themselves from Spanish-Habsburg rule.

The years surrounding its construction were marked by intense unrest. In 1566, Antwerp experienced the Beeldenstorm (Great Iconoclasm or Iconoclastic Fury) during which Protestant iconoclasts destroyed religious images and church property. A year later, Alba or Alva ordered the citadel’s construction to suppress any future rebellion. Although its design was considered highly advanced and widely cited in military manuals, for many Antwerp citizens the fortress symbolised oppression rather than protection.

Spanidh Fury

Tensions erupted dramatically in 1576 during the so-called Spanish Fury, when unpaid Spanish soldiers mutinied, stormed out of the citadel and plundered Antwerp for four days. 

Thousands of inhabitants were killed and large parts of the city, including the town hall, were destroyed by fire. In 1577, Antwerp briefly came under rebel control. The citizens seized the citadel and began to demolish the bastions facing the city – an act celebrated by some as a moment of liberation, and condemned by others as a reckless, chaotic uprising encouraged by ambitious nobles, with William of Orange often singled out as a key figure.

These conflicting interpretations lie at the heart of the exhibition. Its centrepiece is a recently restored painting from around 1620, attributed to an anonymous master working in the circle of Sebastiaen Vrancx and held in the KMSKA collection. 

At first glance, the work appears to be a lively cityscape depicting the demolition of the citadel in 1577. Closer inspection, however, reveals a far more layered and ambiguous image.

Technical research carried out during the restoration has shown that the painting is a reworked version of an earlier composition that originally celebrated the demolition as a popular victory. In the later version, created at a time when Antwerp was once again under Spanish rule and the citadel had been rebuilt, new elements were added: fighting children, a deceitful quack, and unsettling details that subtly but unmistakably shift the message. 

Behind the quack hang bladder stones – remnants of a painful medical condition once removed through dangerous surgery and kept as proof of healing. Here, they hover between meanings: symbols of purification, or of false promises and manipulation.

By placing this painting in its broader historical context, the exhibition shows how images do not simply record events, but actively shape how they are remembered and interpreted. The fall of the citadel could be framed as a joyful act of emancipation, or as a misguided outburst by a population led astray – and visual culture played a key role in promoting both narratives.

Afterlife

The exhibition also traces the long afterlife of the citadel. After returning to Spanish control in 1588, the fortress was rebuilt and later passed successively into Austrian, French and Dutch hands. During the Belgian Revolution of 1830, Dutch troops once again used the citadel to bombard the city, heavily damaging neighbourhoods such as Sint-Andries. 

Following a Franco-Belgian siege, the Dutch commander finally surrendered in December 1832. The citadel itself was eventually demolished in 1881 as part of Antwerp’s urban expansion, leaving only scattered traces in street names, archaeological remains and a blue-stone ornamental vase that still stands on the forecourt of the KMSKA.

‘The Fall of Alba’s Citadel. Image and Memory in Turbulent Times’ is on view in the Print Room on the museum’s third floor. The exhibition is included with a standard museum admission ticket; no separate time slot or reservation is required.

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