Antwerp Central Station by Patrick Haleyt Photography

About "Antwerp Central Station"

by Patrick Haleyt Photography

About the artwork

Antwerp Central Station seen from De Keyserlei on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Antwerp-Central Station (also called Central Station, Middenstatie or Spoorwegkathedraal by locals, and commonly shortened to Antwerp-Central) is the central station at Koningin Astridplein in Antwerp. From 1873 until early 2007, it was a head-end station where all trains had to reverse their direction of travel. On 23 March 2007, a tunnel with two through tracks was opened under part of the city and under the station.

The first Antwerp station was the terminus of the Mechelen-Antwerp railway line opened on 3 June 1836. It was then plainly called Antwerp Station or Anvers. The area around the station was little built-up at the time, and the city's Spanish ramparts were also still intact. When the railway was extended through the Rijnpoort in 1840 to the Antwerp-Dokken and -Stapelplaatsen station on Oude Leeuwenrui, people started using the name Antwerp (Borgerhout) to avoid confusion. The original station building was wooden and was replaced by a new and larger building on the occasion of the opening of the new international connection to the Netherlands in 1854-1855.

In 1873, the station again became a head-end station. The level through connection to Holland could no longer be maintained in the growing and busier city. For the connection to the Netherlands and the station Antwerp-Dokken and Stapelplaatsen, an elevated ring track was built around the city on the east side. In 1879, a new freight station named Borgerhout opened on this ring track and changed the name of Antwerp's main station to Antwerp (East) or Anvers (Est). Management of the station was done jointly with the Grand Central Belge.

When the new station building was festively opened in 1905, the name changed again to today's Antwerp Central.