I still find myself gazing in awe at the vast expanse of the Grote Markt and the impressive cathedral next to it.
This neighbourhood is the very heart of Mechelen’s history. Right in the city centre, you can sense the thriving trading city that Mechelen once was, and experience the city’s humanist and Burgundian past; you know, that era of stately palaces, philosophical treatises, and emperors and empresses. The statue of Margaret of Austria, a feminist avant la lettre, points the way from the Schoenmarkt towards the stone relics of the Burgundian era. But of course, you can just as easily enjoy a glass of Mechelen beer at one of the many terraces on the Grote Markt. St Rumbold’s Tower watches over this part of the city.
