Maagdenhuis

The Maagdenhuis Museum in Antwerp houses a significant art collection in a historic building on Lange Gasthuisstraat. The building, which originally dates from the sixteenth century, served from 1552 as an orphanage for girls, known as the Maegdeckens. During a major expansion between 1634 and 1636, the present-day white stone façade was added, decorated with a remarkable bas-relief. This work, probably designed by Cornelis Floris de Vriendt, shows orphans being led into the building by a female teacher, flanked by figures of Hermes and topped by religious symbols such as Christ as the Good Shepherd. After the orphanage closed in the late nineteenth century, the former chapel space first opened as a museum in 1884, before the collection was later reorganized into its current form and reopened in 1930.

Today the museum presents a rich selection of paintings and sculptures in the orphanage's former functional rooms. In the Rubens Gallery, located in the former kitchen area, you can admire works by Peter Paul Rubens, Otto van Veen, and Thomas Willeboirts Bosschaert. Other rooms house artworks by renowned artists such as Jacob Jordaens, Frans Floris, Pieter Aertsen, and Simon De Vos. The former reception hall and the board's meeting room display paintings by Peter Ykens, Cornelis Schut, and David Teniers the Younger. The side corridors and the sixteenth-century gallery also offer insights into the painting of that era, with works by Abraham Bloemaert and Michiel Coxie.

Besides art, the museum shows everyday objects in the former chapel space that were used by the orphans and foundlings. These include oatmeal bowls, clothing for foundlings, embroidered sampler books, and antique furniture. A collection of documents sheds light on life in the orphanage from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. The inner courtyard also contains sculptures, including a wooden figure from the seventeenth century and a portrait of Sebastiaen van den Eynde. The museum, which is now managed by Antwerp's public social welfare agency, thus combines the history of social care with a valuable cultural heritage.