The Meir in Antwerp. It is the most famous street in the city and it is one of the busiest shopping streets in the country. Let’s have a look at the history of this place.
Around the year 1000, the core of Antwerp residents and trading activities has become so solid that it is demarcated with the first earthen walls. Until about 1180, a ring of canals protects the city.
The first city center is still very small, so the Church of Our Lady is still outside the actual city area. Around 1200 major fortification works are carried out and the surface of the city doubles.
“Hout Mere”, the oldest mention of the Meir, dates from 1257. The name refers to moist, low-lying land or a lake just outside the city. This lake is probably also used to store wood. The gate in the ramparts of the city in this area is named “Meir Poort”.
Between 1295 and 1314, the ramparts of the city are expanded again. Part of the Meir now lies within the city borders. Around 1400, the entire Meir lies within the city walls. In this drawing from the early sixteenth century we see that the “Meir Poort” is now within the city walls. The rural character of the area has disappeared.
We also see the canal that was built in the fifteenth century. It drains all the water present in the area and supplies fresh water. This water comes from a river outside the city and is led through the canals into the center.
In 1527 a monumental crucifix is erected on the Meir. With a small interruption, this crucifix will determine the view of the Meir until 1797.
Around 1500, Antwerp grows into one of the largest cities north of the Alps, surpassed only by Paris. The city’s appeal is growing and the area around the Meir becomes the place where numerous wealthy merchants and financiers, especially Italians and Portuguese, settle.
When the stock exchange building in the old center of the city becomes too small for the important trade center that Antwerp is becoming, a new, larger stock exchange building is built in 1531 in a side street. The Meir takes on a bourgeois appearance. It is the place where the wealthy citizens are at home.
At the end of the sixteenth century Maria Pypelinckx lives at number 54. Maria is the mother of Pieter Paul Rubens, who spends his childhood years in this place. Rubens became one of the most important painters of that period and spent several years in Italy to study the treasures of antiquity and contemporary Italian art.
In 1608, he returns to Antwerp and buys a property in a side street of the Meir where he establishes his residence and a painting studio. After numerous voyages around Europe, he settles close to the place where his cradle had been. In 1640 he is buried in St. Jacob’s Church, 500 meters from the place he had lived.
In the eighteenth century, wars increase the commercial risk and many wealthy merchants choose to partially secure their capital in real estate.
As a result, beautiful patrician houses are being built on the Meir. Two of those buildings from the mid-eighteenth century still exist today. At number 50 is the Palace on the Meir. A former city palace commissioned by a wealthy merchant, it was once owned by Napoleon Bonaparte, King William I of the Netherlands and the Belgian royal family. A little further on, at number 85, we find the “Osterrieth house”, a mansion that is renovated around 1750. Its current appearance dates from that era. It is a fine example of the Rococo style.
During the French rule at the end of the 18th century, the crucifix that stood on the Meir for almost 300 years is removed. With this, the religious element disappears from the streetscape and the Ancien Régime comes to an end.
In the 19th century, the city within the boundaries of the 16th-century ramparts has to adapt rapidly to the growth of the population, trade and traffic.
A revolutionary new invention is making its way to continental Europe: the train. On May 5, 1835, the railway line between Brussels and Mechelen is opened and for the first time in history a train runs on the European continent. In 1836 this railway line is extended to Antwerp.
To facilitate the connection with the train station, the Spanish fortress near the Meirsteeg, later called Leysstraat, is pierced in 1841 through a pedestrian tunnel. A few years later, it is replaced by the “Statiepoort”, which is also accessible to carriages and which is connected to the train station by a road.
From 1864, the Spanish fortresses are demolished and the “Leien “are built on this site. The “Leien” are wide boulevards that surround the old town.
Following the American example, the “Horse Tram” or Tramway Américain, is introduced in 1873, a tram pulled by horses. The first tram runs between the Meir and the church of Berchem, on the current route of tram line 7. At the beginning of the twentieth century, this “horse tram” is replaced by an electric version.
At the end of the nineteenth century, the city council wants to create an axis between the train station and the city center. For this, the Meir must be straightened and widened. The narrow “Leysstraat” is also being tackled.
In 1914 the First World War breaks out. Antwerp is under attack by the German army. The area between the Meir and the cathedral suffers heavy damages and is largely destroyed. Between 1929 and 1932, the tallest apartment building in Europe at that time is built on this site: the “Boerentoren”. From then on, this building will dominate the view of the Meir.
In 1975, the street is broken up for the construction of the “PreMetro”. From now on, the tram will run underground and disappear from street view. Major works again follow in the 1990s. The street is completely redeveloped and becomes a pedestrian zone.
Over the past 800 years, Meir has evolved from a lake on the edge of the city to one of Antwerp’s most prominent streets. Today it is the ideal place to go shopping and afterwards have something to eat or drink in one of the many restaurants in the area.