Antwerpen, straatzicht Terniersplaats foto5 2014-12-14 10

Meir is the main shopping street in Antwerp,

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

. It is the most important shopping area in the country, both by number of shoppers and by rent prices. The street has been mostly

pedestrianised Pedestrian zones (also known as auto-free zones and car-free zones, as pedestrian precincts in British English, and as pedestrian malls in the United States and Australia) are areas of a city or town reserved for pedestrian-only use and in whi ...

since 1993 and is said to be the Belgian equivalent to New York's 5th Avenue. In the centre of Antwerp, Meir connects the

Antwerp City Hall The City Hall ( Dutch: ) of Antwerp, Belgium, stands on the western side of Antwerp's Grote Markt ("Great Market Square"). Erected between 1561 and 1565 after designs made by Cornelis Floris de Vriendt and several other architects and artists, th ...

with the trains at

Antwerp Central Station Antwerpen-Centraal railway station ( nl, Station Antwerpen-Centraal, french: Gare d'Anvers-Central, IATA code: ZWE), officially Antwerpen-Centraal, is the main railway station in Antwerp, Belgium. The station is operated by the National Railwa ...

. Between 2002 and 2004, it was the most expensive shopping street in the

Benelux The Benelux Union ( nl, Benelux Unie; french: Union Benelux; lb, Benelux-Unioun), also known as simply Benelux, is a Political union, politico-economic union and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighboring states in ...

. Since the opening of the historic Stadsfeestzaal shopping centre in 2007, Meir regained that position. It has the highest rents of any street in Belgium, at 1,700 €/square metre/year. The name comes from the old Dutch word "meere" (lake). Meir used to be a so-called "wood lake" (''houtmeer''), where wood destined for use in furniture would be kept wet for a time.''Historiek der straten en openbare plaatsen van Antwerpen'', Thijs A, 1973, Antwerp (in dutch)

Historical buildings

* Meir 50: Royal Residence, built in 1745, served as the Antwerp residence of the

Kings of Belgium This is a list of Belgian monarchs from 1831 when the first Belgian king, Leopold I, ascended the throne, after Belgium seceded from the Kingdom of the Netherlands during the Belgian Revolution of 1830. Under the Belgian Constitution, the Belgi ...

. * Meir 85: Osterrieth House, built in 1746 in full

rococo Rococo (, also ), less commonly Roccoco or Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and theatrical style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpted moulding, ...

style.

Surroundings

* Neoclassical Bourla Theatre, built in 1827 and 1834 by architect

Pierre Bruno Bourla Pierre Bruno Bourla (19 December 1783 – 31 December 1866) was a Paris-born Belgian architect. He was the city architect in Antwerp from 1819 to 1861, and a professor of architecture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. His most famous w ...

. *

, completed 1905 in an eclectic style. *

, completed 1564, in

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...

style. * Trading Exchange, reconstruction of one of the world's first stock exchanges built in 1531. *

Rubens House The Rubenshuis () is the former home and workshop of Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) in Antwerp. Purchased in 1610, Rubens had the Flemish townhouse renovated and extended on the basis of designs by Rubens himself. After the renovations, the h ...

, historical home of the painter

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradit ...

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://www.meir-as.be
Official website of Rubens house
Shopping districts and streets in Belgium Pedestrian malls in Belgium Streets in Antwerp