a city of the duchy of Brabant, in the Netherlands, formerly capital of the marquisate of Antwerp, otherwise called the marquisate of the holy Roman empire, situated in E. Long. 4. 15. N. Lat. 51. 12. It lies in a low marshy ground on the Scheld, 24 miles from Brussels to the north. It is the third city in rank in Brabant, large and well built, containing 22 squares, and above 200 streets, all straight and broad, especially that called the Mere, in which six coaches can go abreast. Most of the houses are of freestone, and have an air of antiquity, being high, with courts before and gardens behind. At the head of the Mere is a crucifix of brass thirty-three feet high. The cathedral dedicated to the Virgin Mary, the stadhous, and the exchange, are magnificent structures: the latter is the first building of that kind in Europe, and on its model the exchanges of London and Amsterdam are built. Its pillars are all of blue marble, and carved, but all in a different manner. The exchange cost the city 300,000 crowns. Antwerp, towards the end of the fifteenth century, was one of the most celebrated towns that ever existed. The Scheld, on which it stands, being 20 feet deep at low water, and rising 20 feet more at flood, ships of the greatest burden came up to the quays, as in the river Thames at London; but when the United Provinces formed themselves into a free state, after having shaken off the yoke of Spain, they got the entire command of the navigation of the Scheld; which ruined the trade of Antwerp, and transferred it to Amsterdam. This made the inhabitants turn their heads to painting, jewelling, and banking, which they have continued to this day with great success and reputation; for at Antwerp bills of exchange may be negotiated for any sum to any part of Europe; and in the time of Queen Anne's wars, two brothers of the name of De Koninck, paid the one the army of France, and the other that of the confederates. Besides, here is a fine manufacture of tapestry and lace; and, for the promoting of trade, an insurance company has been erected. This city was the see of a bishop, who, as abbot of St Bernard, was the second prelate in Brabant. The bishopric was of great extent, and the cathedral a most noble pile, with one of the finest steeples in the world. The emperor, Charles V. when he made his entry into Antwerp, said it ought to be put in a case, and showed only once a year for a rarity. The house of the hanse towns, built when the city was in its flourishing condition, is a stately building, with magazines above for dry goods, and cellars below for wet, and in the middle story were 300 lodging rooms for merchants; but now it is turned to a horse barrack. There is a market here, called the Friday's Market, because it is held every Friday, where all sorts of household goods, pictures, and jewels, are sold by auction. No city in the Netherlands has so many and so fine churches as this. Many of them, particularly the cathedral and Jesuits church, are adorned with paintings, by Sir Peter Paul Rubens, who was a native of this city; and by Quintin Massyes, who is said to have been a blacksmith; but having fallen in love with a painter's daughter, and been told by her father, when he asked her of him in marriage, that he would have none but a painter for his son-in-law, he went to Italy to study painting, and, in a few years, returned so eminent in his new profession, that he found no difficulty in obtaining the father's consent. He is interred at the entry of the cathedral, where his effigy is put up, with an inscription, signifying, that conjugal love made an A-pelles of a blacksmith. The above mentioned Jesuits church is extremely magnificent, and the chapel of the Virgin, joining to it, still more so. Among the cloisters the most remarkable are, the noble and rich abbey of St Michael, on the banks of the Scheld, the apartments of which are truly royal, and in which sovereign princes were often lodged; and the English nunnery, of the order of St Teresa, the nuns of which never wore linen, nor ate flesh, and lay upon straw: the grates of the convent are so dismal, that it looks like a prison. As to the fortifications of the city, it is environed with a fine wall, planted with rows of trees on each side, with walks between, broad enough for two coaches to go abreast, being also defended by a very strong, large, regular citadel, in form of a pentagon, erected by the duke of Alva in 1568, which commands the town and the neighbouring country. The magistracy of this city is chosen only out of the several patrician families; and consists of two burgomasters and 18 schevins, besides inferior magistrates. Among the privileges granted to it by its princes, there is one by which every person born in it is a citizen, though both his father and mother were foreigners.

In 1585, Antwerp underwent a remarkable siege by the duke of Parma. It was then the most wealthy city in the Netherlands, and had long been the object of his designs; but the difficulties attending the enterprise obliged him to postpone it for a considerable time. In order to succeed, it was necessary to cut off the communication. communication of the city with Holland, Ghent, and all places above and below Antwerp on the Scheld. To effect this, he laid siege to Lakenhousk and Tillo, places of the utmost consequence to the security and commerce of the city; both were obstinately defended; and the siege of the latter was raised, after it had been carried on for three months; however, the duke gained several other posts on the river, where he built forts, and greatly annoyed the shipping and trade of the city. He next laid siege to Dendermonde, in order to cut off the communication with Ghent, in which he succeeded by the reduction of the town. His next attempt was on Vilvorde: this place he took by assault, and thereby cut off the communication with Brussels. Finding, however, this method of hemming in the city tedious, and ineffectual while an opening to the mouth of the river remained, he formed a design of building a bridge across the Scheld, the extremities of which were to be defended by strong forts and outworks. He began with collecting great quantities of wood at Callo and Fort St Philip, where he intended the bridge should be built; but his project was for some time retarded by the Antwerpers, who broke down the dykes, overflowed the whole country, and carried off his magazines by the inundation. Not discouraged by this loss, he applied himself diligently to repair it, and with incredible expedition cut a canal from Steken to Callo, by which he carried off the waters. He then set to work upon the bridge, and finished it in seven months, without any interruption from the Zealanders. During the building of this bridge, Aldegonde, governor of Antwerp, proposed to build a fort on Couvensteyn dyke, in order to secure that important post, and then break down the dyke when the bridge was near finished; but he was violently opposed by certain citizens, who apprehended that their lands and villas would be destroyed by the inundation. This unseasonable opposition, with the negligence of the magistrates, who, because the markets were high, had not laid in a sufficient stock of corn, occasioned the loss of the city. However, in despite of all the duke of Parma's precaution, the Zealanders found means to throw in a convoy of corn; but the citizens, knowing they would not run the risk of carrying it back again, so cheapened the price, that these bold traders refused ever to bring their goods again to so bad a market. The Antwerpers, having thus through avarice brought on their ruin, began in a short time to suffer by famine; they then pressed the Zealanders to attempt something for their relief, but it was now too late. While the magistrates were deliberating on some means for destroying the bridge, which they might have prevented from being ever completed, one Ginebelli, a Mantuan engineer, offered his services, undertaking at a certain expense to blow it into the air. Even in this extremity the expense was grudged; but necessity at last overcame this obstacle; Ginebelli was furnished with two large vessels, a number of small boats, and every thing necessary. He formed the two large vessels into fire ships, which he set adrift with the stream, deceiving the enemy by means of false fires lighted up in the fleet of small boats. The train of one of the fire ships was expended before the time expected, and she blew up with a terrible explosion, but with little damage to the bridge.

The other was more successful, carrying off all the Antwerp outworks, setting fire to the whole bridge, and burying above 300 soldiers in the ruins it made. The bridge however, was repaired, and the Antwerpers were soon reduced to the greatest straits, and obliged to surrender. It is said that the city of Amsterdam had obstructed every measure for the relief of Antwerp, hoping to profit by its destruction. By a stipulation between Spain and Holland at the peace of Westphalia in 1648, the navigation of the Scheld was closed. The emperor Joseph made an attempt to break this agreement in 1785, but did not succeed. At length, when the place fell into the hands of the French in 1792, the navigation of the river was declared open. Subsequent to this period, docks and store-houses were built, and the port improved. It was surrendered to the allies in 1814, after the capitulation of Paris, and now begins to revive. It contains at present 61,800 inhabitants.