Author: Claes Jansz. Visscher

Antwerp, the march and the most important buildings in 1624

Antwerp is a Flemish city in Belgium, the capital of Antwerp province in the state of Flanders. With a current population of more than half a million, it is the most populous city proper in Belgium.

Antwerp is on the River Scheldt, linked to the North Sea by the Westerschelde estuary. The Port of Antwerp is one of the biggest in the world, ranking second in Europe and within the top 20 globally.

Antwerp has long been an important city in the Low Countries, both economically and culturally, especially before the Spanish Fury (1576) in the Dutch Revolt. The inhabitants of Antwerp are nicknamed Sinjoren, after the Spanish honorific señor or French seigneur, "lord", referring to the Spanish noblemen who ruled the city in the 17th century.

This map depicts Antwerpen in 1624, before the recognition of the independence of the United Provinces by the Treaty of Münster in 1648. Treaty of Münster stipulated that the Scheldt should be closed to navigation, which destroyed Antwerp's trading activities, 24 years after the creation of this map.

(Source: Wikipedia