Zurenborg

Antwerp's art nouveau 'ghetto' Zurenborg – a somewhat arty/intellectual neighbourhood located in the southeastern but very accessible corner of the city – is well worth a short trek to for its heavenly concentration of townhouses built mostly between 1894 and 1914, and in eye-catching styles such as gothic revial, neoclassical and, most famously, fin-de-siécle art nouveau. Decorative details are too numerous to mention, but start a trawl of the area in the famous street known as Cogels-Osylei – notably numbers 17, 42, 44, 46 50, 55 and 80 and the Witte Paleizen (White Palaces), where the street dramatically intersects with Generaal Van Merlenstraat – and continue to Transvaalstraat (numbers 59 and 61) and Waterloostraat (number 39). Plus the quartet of corner houses known as De Vier Seizoenen, by the area's most represented architect, Joseph Bascourt, at the crossroads of Waterloostraat and Generaal Van Merlenstraat. Jacques de Weert, Jules Hofman and Frans Smet-Verhas also figure among Zurenborg's signature architects. Gay hotspot Café den Draak [see entry] is just minutes away. The area is reached with ease via a number 11 tram (quaint design from the last century), which runs past the Central Station, where you can also catch an overground train one stop to 'suburban' Bercham, which borders Zurenborg right at Cogels-Osylei.