Merksem, Antwerp — Area Guide & Where to Stay

What are the main landmarks in Merksem?

The landmark register here is Antwerp's own. Museum aan de Stroom, the Red Star Line Museum and Hessenhuis draw the museum traffic of the city Merksem sits inside, with Aquatopia adding a stop for families, and none of them asks more than a short ride from the district. Churches carry the rest.

Sint-Pauluskerk, the Brabantsche Olijfberg and the Begijnhofkerk stand in the old core, while the Sint-Amanduskerk and the Franciscanessenklooster mark the parish and monastic ground of the wider municipality.

What is the history of Merksem?

Merksem kept its own name inside a larger city. Antwerp holds the municipality, so the district's administration and its parishes sit with the city rather than with a council of its own, and the institutions carrying the longest record stand in the old core instead of out here. Hessenhuis is one of them.

The Begijnhofkerk and the Sint-Pauluskerk are others, and the Klooster van de Apostelinnen te Antwerpen together with the Franciscanessenklooster marks the monastic ground the Flemish Region city grew around.

Where is Merksem?

Merksem covers a little over eight square kilometres on the northern side of Antwerp, a built-up district of the Flemish Region rather than a town of its own.