Groenenhoek, Antwerp — Area Guide & Where to Stay

What are the main landmarks in Groenenhoek?

Church towers mark the corners here. The Basiliek van het Heilig Hart is the neighbourhood's landmark church, raised among streets that carry the names of West Flemish front towns. Most of what draws visitors sits outside Groenenhoek, though not far.

Middelheim Museum sets its sculptures out in open parkland across the city, the Antwerp Zoo occupies the ground beside the main railway station, and the villa fronts of the Cogels-Osylei stand at the other end of Berchem. Trams reach all three.

What is the history of Groenenhoek?

The name comes from a bend. Groenenhoek took it from a corner of the winding Helderstraat, the lane that ran from the Helder by way of the Rooi to the Berchemse Grotesteenweg, and that corner is the crossing of Helderstraat with Diksmuidelaan. Building came later, and with it a street plan that reads as a war memorial: block after block of the neighbourhood carries the names of the West Flemish front municipalities of the First World War.

Streets in the north and west took their names instead from gemstones and from figures out of myth.

Where is Groenenhoek?

Groenenhoek covers the eastern side of Berchem, level ground within Antwerp, laid out in long straight residential streets.