Some of the squares in Antwerp feel like an Italian piazza. Even if the weather is North European. The most Italianate is the Hendrik Conscienceplein named after the 19th-century Flemish writer Hendrik Conscience.
This intimate cobbled square is dominated by the baroque Carolus Borromeus church which could almost be in Rome. The piazza in front of the church became the first car-free square in Antwerp in 1968 after local artists closed it off with blocks of industrial ice.
There are other squares where it is more the street life that creates an Italian mood. The inviting urban square Dageraadsplaats in Zuid district is surrounded by shops, cafes and restaurants. You can watch a basketball game, kick around a football or sit on the terrace of Café Zeezicht with a glass of La Chouffe. It is worth dropping by after dark to see the artificial starry night created using a network of suspended lights.
Not far away, the Draakplaats on the edge of the Zurenborg district is not so much as square as a roundabout bisected by a railway viaduct and a tram line. But the cafes on the square have pavement terraces where you can sit on warm evenings while goods trains rumble overhead deep into the night.
Derek Blyth’s hidden secret of the day: Derek Blyth is the author of the bestselling “The 500 Hidden Secrets of Belgium”. He picks out one of his favourite hidden secrets for The Brussels Times every day.
