Free audio walk in Antwerp
Beyond the City Walls
- 46 min
- 2.1 km
- 11 stops
- Free
Starts at Steenhouwersvest 53-55
About this walk
This route takes you to a side of Antwerp that most tourists never reach. We start at the Steenhouwersvest, once quite literally the edge of the city. Where the medieval wall ended, our walk begins. Beyond those walls, a remarkable world took root: printers who spread ideas, fashion designers who dressed the world, and cartographers who mapped the earth.
This is the Antwerp of the creative mind.
The stops
Walk them in order; each story plays when you reach its pin.
- 1Stop 1
The Street Floating Above a River
You're standing on a street that was literally built over a hidden river — and that's just the beginning of its secrets.
- 2Stop 2
The World's Oldest Printing Presses
Hidden behind this Antwerp façade are the two oldest surviving printing presses on Earth — and they still look ready to use.
- 3Stop 3
Sint-Jansvliet
The peaceful square you're standing in right now was once a living, breathing waterway that helped shape the canals of an entire country.
- 4Stop 4
The Wooden Escalator Under the River
Beneath your feet, wooden escalators built in the 1930s still carry people under a major European river — and they're still the originals.
- 5Stop 5
Mercator-Ortelius House
Two men who changed the way all of humanity sees the world once lived and worked on this very street.
- 6Stop 6
Napoleon's Shipyards
The ground beneath your feet was once the beating heart of Europe's most powerful war machine.
- 7Stop 7
The Tsar Who Measured the Cathedral with a Rope
A Russian tsar once showed up in this city with 60 followers, drank 269 bottles of wine in two days, and then climbed a cathedral tower with a rope — just to measure it.
- 8Stop 8
The Man Who Taught His People to Read
A half-French boy born in a sailor's shop full of dusty books went on to change the soul of an entire nation.
- 9Stop 9
The Street with a Rich and a Poor Side
This neighborhood once had a "Rich Street" and a "Poor Street" running side by side — and that's just the beginning of its story.
- 10Stop 10
From the Stake to the Parish of Misery
The church standing before you was born from heresy, fire, and revolution — and it has the scars to prove it.
- 11Stop 11
MoMu - Antwerp Fashion Museum
Six young designers, a rented van, and a stack of homemade flyers changed the fashion world forever.
Ready when you are
Walk Beyond the City Walls with ROODS.
11 stops through Antwerp, about 46 minutes. Open ROODS in your browser, walk to the first pin and the story plays.
- Stories on a map, with narrated audio
- Walk at your own pace, stop where you like
- Runs in your browser. An app is optional.
