Belgium · Flanders · Antwerp
Berendrecht, Antwerp — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Berendrecht is a former village well north of Antwerp's centre, holding its own lanes and the Kapel van de Hagelberg between Lillo and Zandvliet.
About Berendrecht
Where to stay in Berendrecht
Not every neighbourhood fits every trip — here's what each one is good for.
Beds are scarce here. Berendrecht has the shape of a village rather than a hotel district, so most visitors sleep in Antwerp and drive north through Lillo or Zandvliet when they want the quiet end of the district. The lanes near the Kapel van de Hagelberg hold what little lodging there is, and anyone booking that far from the city should plan meals and evenings around a car, because kitchens and shops here shut long before the city's do.
About Berendrecht
What are the main landmarks in Berendrecht?
The Kapel van de Hagelberg is the one landmark Berendrecht carries on the record, a modest chapel among houses rather than a monument standing apart. It takes minutes to see. What else registers is the older work under the settlement: the dike line the name remembers, the crossing over wet ground that gave the village its reason to exist, and the field roads that still run out toward Lillo and Zandvliet.
What is the history of Berendrecht?
The name argues with itself. Read one way, Berendrecht is the dike of a bear, or of a man called Bear; read another, drecht points to a ferry or a crossing, and ber to a dam thrown up against water, which turns the whole word into a river crossing at a dam. Both readings describe the same problem: keeping a settlement dry.
Independence ended with annexation, and Berendrecht has been grouped with Zandvliet and Lillo inside Antwerp ever since, one of three former villages sharing a single district name.
Where is Berendrecht?
Flat, low ground separates Berendrecht from central Antwerp, with Lillo to the south and Zandvliet at the northern end of the district.
More areas in Antwerp
Updated September 2026