Antwerp already has 2 WHS within its borders (the Plantin-Moretus Museum plus the Belfries of the City Hall & Cathedral), but is aiming for 2 more. Maison Guiette is part of the transboundary Corbusier nomination for 2016, and has managed to stay on the list of proposed locations even after the necessary deletion of sites. The Historic core within the walls of 1250 covers the remainder of the historical city. Antwerp is the largest city in Belgium, and in continuous rivalry with Brussels which already has 3 sites on the WH List and 2 more on the Tentative List. The day after Easter is a holiday in The Netherlands, and I used it this year to revisit Antwerp which is only a 75 minute drive from my home. I had been there a couple of times before.

City Center with Cathedral

First I drove to the south of the city, to the residential neighbourhood where the Maison Guiette lies. I had a look beforehand on Google Streetview, to check out the area and to know what to look for. As other reviewers have noticed, it's not easy to park in the surroundings. I don't think you have to worry too much about parking tickets however: it would be an achievement to spend more than 5 minutes at this house. I have not been lucky with my Le Corbusier visits so far: the Argentian Casa Curutchet was closed for Columbus Day when I went there, the excellent Swiss Villa Jeanneret-Perret has been dropped from the final nomination list and the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo was shut too when I passed it on a rainy day. And this Maison Guiette even is worse: it's never open to the public! There's nothing remarkable to see from the outside either, not even a hint of the colouring that it is renowned for. There's a flimsy yellow information panel (in Dutch) planted right next to it, the only clue that you're watching something out of the ordinary. The Maison Guiette is an early and relatively unknown work of Le Corbusier.

Maison Guiette

Some 10 minutes drive to the north I entered the other TWHS. The historic city center of Antwerp has obvious similarities with Bruges and Amsterdam (such as the gabled houses). But it lacks their picturesque canal setting. It's much more a working port city, with 19th and 20th century constructions obscuring the medieval buildings. The Grand Place seems to have been turned into a tourist trap for Asian visitors or Dutch daytrippers. Antwerp has played a pivotal role in the history of the Low Countries, mostly up to 1585 when the weight shifted northwards to Amsterdam. The oldest remaining structure of Antwerp is Het Steen , a stone fortress on the banks of the Scheldt built between 1200 and 1225. Closeby lies the early 16th century Hall of Meat . This fine gothic brick work was built for the guild of the butchers. Both buildings are now in use as small museums.

Hall of Meat (Vleeshuis)

It would surprise me if Belgium would claim separate WH status for Antwerp. With the Town Hall and Cathedral already being listed as part of the Belfries WHS, I believe its main monuments have been covered already.