Mechelen, Belgium: Why is this place not on tourist radar?? (And how awesome that it’s not!)

Grote Markt (Grand Plaza) in Mechelen

Located a mere 15-minute train ride from Antwerp’s Centraal Station and 15-25 minutes from Brussels, Mechelen, Belgium, is an overlooked gem. I’ve seen several lists of “Most Beautiful Towns in Belgium” (Beauty definitely abounds in Belgium.), but none mentioning Mechelen. Old Town Mechelen is delightfully reminiscent of Bruges and Ghent and lesser “most beautifuls,” but without the mobs of tourists. Mechelen is home to two UNESCO World Heritage sites: the medieval St. Rumbold’s Tower that soars above the magnificent St. Rumbold’s Cathedral and the Large Beguinage, a complex that once housed a religious sisterhood similar to nuns, but adhering to less strict vows. (Other beguinages can be found in other Belgian cities, including Antwerp.) With the weather forecast calling for bluebird skies and a high in the low 70F’s, David and I hopped the train yesterday (a mere 13 minutes from our local Antwerpen-Berchem station) to spend a gorgeous Sunday wandering the picturesque cobblestone streets and plazas of Mechelen.

St. Rumbold’s Tower soars above Mechelen

Mechelen offers a wealth of cafes and restaurants, chocolatiers, and shops and boutiques of every variety. Tour boats ply the Dyle that runs through the city, there’s a toy museum just across from Mechelen’s Nekkerspoel train station, and eight historical churches to explore. Het Anker (“The Anchor”) Brewery, located a short way from the Old Town center near the beguinage, offers 2-hour tours as well as tour-free visits to their tasting room and brasserie. The brasserie serves all kinds of traditional beer-based and beer-friendly dishes paired with suggested beers. Het Anker brews some world-class beers and is a destination in and of itself, popular with tour groups from Brussels.

Bustling cafés on Vismarkt (Fish Market) Square in Mechelen
Walkway along the Dyle in Old Mechelen

There are not a ton of museums and the like in Mechelen and it’s a shame that some of its many preserved historical buildings aren’t open more regularly. Although, from March 11–May 21, 2017, the “Contour Biennale 8, “Polyphonic Worlds: Justice as Medium” art project offers the opportunity to visit six such sites. One of the buildings open during the Contour Biennale is the “Hof van Savoye” from which Margaret of Austria ruled the Netherlands and where both her nephew Emperor Charles V and Anne Boleyn spent some of their formative years. We were able to duck inside the lovely courtyard with some of the people taking part in the Contour Biennale.

Courtyard of Hof Van Savoye
Exploring Mechelen on a gorgeous spring day

St. Rumbold’s Tower is open regularly and worth the climb to the top, both for the view and to visit the workings of the tower, including a crane operated by a huge hamster-wheel-like contraption for humans and a carillon, a mechanized device for playing the tower’s enormous bells.

Crane wheel inside St. Rumbold’s Tower
Carillon rotating drum

The hole through which objects were hauled up the tower by the crane provides a unique view down onto the pipes and keyboard of the cathedral’s massive organ.

Looking down on the cathedral organ

The cathedral itself boasts a magnificent altar, an Antoon Van Dyck painting of Christ on the Cross, and a spectacular carved wooden pulpit. A small museum in the ambulatory holds a limited but impressive collection of relics and medieval sculpture and paintings.

St. Rumbold’s Cathedral in Mechelen

We had lunch outside a café on the main plaza in front of the confection-like old Staadhuis (Town Hall). Basking in the sun, sipping our Het Anker beers and admiring the fairy-tale view, we told our young waitress how much we loved her town.

View from our café: St. Rumbold’s Tower rising above buildings bordering the Grote Markt
Mechelen’s old Staadhuis with its confection-like roof

She credited the mayor, saying “ten years ago none of us liked our town.” Hmm. Since many of the most picturesque buildings go back 300-600 years judging by the “anno” signs visible on facades, I’m not sure what changes have been wrought in the last ten years, but most of the old buildings have been maintained and/or restored well. There are stylish new residences and commercial buildings amongst the old as well, and the Old Town is clean and prosperous-looking and apparently drawing more visitors. Kudos to the mayor of Mechelen!

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There are two train stations in Mechelen near to the Old Town: Mechelen and Mechelen-Nekkerspoel. We chose Mechelen-Nekkerspoel as the most convenient to Old Town and offering the most scenic stroll into the historic center. It’s also the closest (by a minute or two) to Antwerp. Mechelen Station is also within walking distance of Old Town, just a bit farther. As always, Google Map is your friend for these kind of decisions. Train tickets are available via Belgian Rail and are half-price on weekends. For more information on what the town has to offer, check out Visit Mechelen.

3 thoughts on “Mechelen, Belgium: Why is this place not on tourist radar?? (And how awesome that it’s not!)”

  1. I lived there for a while. I live in Antwerp now. When locals says that they did not like it in the past they’re right, most people didn’t like it 15 years ago. It was still a city much in an 80’s look and feel… cars in every street. The beautiful square (grote markt) was an open air parking lot (now there’s a paid parking garage beneath it). Basically the streets and public infrastructure have been massively updated in the past 15 to 20 years, safety has improved as well. Mechelen has a big immigrant population as well but the integration seems to have improved massively in the past 2 decades and economically they have created two major zones north and south of the city where lots of factories but also start ups and businesses have come and made it one of the fastest growing economic areas in the country. So yes it was pretty dormant, sometimes a bit run-down and trashy and definitely has made big steps forward.

    1. Thanks for your comments and perspective. Neighbors in Antwerp also commented on how far Mechelen has progressed. It’s good to know it can be done and makes me think Mechelen could be a role model for other cities with similar problems (although not every town has such beautiful buildings to work with). We’re looking forward to going back to Mechelen when we return to Antwerp next month.

      P.S. If you are in any way related to either the bakery or the chocolatier in Antwerp sharing your name, you are a very lucky person! 🙂

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