The Burchtgracht: Where Vikings Built Antwerp

The name Burchtgracht means "castle moat," and that's exactly what once ran through here. Long before Antwerp became a trading giant, Vikings sailed up the Scheldt and left their mark on this very spot.

In 836, Norse raiders navigated the river's shallow waters to reach Antwerp and burned it to the ground. Back then, the Scheldt was a quieter, less powerful river, with a tidal difference of barely 1 metre. It wasn't yet connected directly to the North Sea, fed instead by smaller waterways, but that was no obstacle for Viking longships. These vessels were built precisely for shallow, tidal landscapes, and the Norse seafarers knew how to use them.

After the raid, they didn't leave. On a protruding strip of land along the river, they built a new circular settlement, neatly divided into four quarters by streets that still exist today, including the Mattestraat and Zakstraat. To protect it, they dug a wide moat all around it: the Burchtgracht, the very feature this street is named after.

The moat is long gone, but the street name survived. In a way, Antwerp owes its urban layout to a group of Scandinavians who showed up uninvited and decided to stay and redecorate.