ANTWERP: Summer’s up and Boeings are coming down all over Europe with tourists eager to do the sights. London and Paris are mobbed, as always, but not a few are also mak- ing their way to the old city of Antwerp in Belgium.

One very good reason is a major exhibition showing off the genius of Anthony van Dyck, who was born here 400 years ago. Another is that this old city is under- going a renaissance of spirit, rather like the Euro-boom city of Dublin, that has made it a magnet for young people. Or, to put it another way, young at heart.

Antwerp gets its cnergy from the busy port, second biggest in Europe after near- by Rotterdam. Thriving, businesses connected to the funnelling of goods to and from Europe have spawned jobs and wealth just as they did centuries ago.

The name supposedly derives frem “aan de werf” (on the wharf) when it was a Roman and Frankish settle- ment on a bend of the River Schelde. First records date from 980 when the Scheldt was the border between the Duchy of Brabant, in the German Empire, and the County of Flanders in France.

Antwerp benefited from the early 16th century shift in trade from southern to northern Europe as well as the decline of nearby Bruges, hit by silt in its har- bour and lace merchants who were about to discover that trade protectionism was not a sound business strate- gy. Flanders had plenty of linen to export, which the British were keen to buy,

_ Germany shipped ores and the Portuguese brought spices from the East. By 1550 Antwerp was one of the biggest, wealthiest cities in Europe with a population

of 100,000, some 10,000 of |

them foreigners. Everything came to a grinding halt in. 1585 when

See Genius page 25

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