Pinnable

Antwerp is Belgium’s second-largest city, and its seaport is the second-largest on the North Sea. Its city museum, MAS, is about Antwerp & the world, which is about everything, and therefore about nothing in particular. Its collection ranges from the history, art & culture of Antwerp, through international trade & shipping, to the history, art & culture of Europe, Africa, America, Asia and Oceania. The museum shows how the city has been connected to the world for centuries, and continues to be so today. Designed by the architectural firm Neutelings Riedijk, the museum is housed in a spectacular 60-m-high modern-day warehouse, and even if you don’t care about Antwerp, or the world, the MAS is certainly worth a visit just to enjoy the building and the view of the city & harbour that it offers.

On ten floors connected by an imposing stairway surrounding the galleries, the MAS features various exhibitions that generally have little in common. The main exhibition, Freight, located on the sixth floor, takes visitors into the colourful history of shipping & world trade, and showcases the role of the port of Antwerp. City at War, on the fourth floor, is about the German occupation of Antwerp during World War II, while Antwerp à la Carte, on the fifth floor, reveals the relationship between the city & food. The unexpected highlight of the museum, on the eighth floor, is Art of America, an exhibition of pre-Columbian art that has nothing to do with Antwerp, featuring objects from some fifty cultures ranging from Alaska to Chile dating from the time before the conquistadors set sail for America, which bear witness to the connection between humans and the world of gods, ancestors & spirits.

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