Mercator-Orteliushuis
Mercator-Orteliushuis stands in Antwerp as a sixteenth-century city villa built around a central courtyard. Brick, natural stone, pilasters, cornices, and barred window frames shape its exterior.
The earliest parts date from around 1547 and 1555, according to inscriptions preserved on the building. In 1698, Hendrik Frans Verbrugghen added an eastern wing in late Baroque style, enclosing the former U-shaped plan. Eighteenth-century stucco ceilings display flowers, vines, and fruit, while the southern wing retains carved wooden beams. Cross-vaulted cellars and antique wooden floors preserve further traces of earlier interiors.
The west entrance opens onto a trapezoidal courtyard framed by contrasting architectural periods. A broad triangular pediment and colossal pilasters mark the Baroque garden façade.
- City
- Antwerp
- Content updated
Take this page with you
The myTuur app is free, and once you are standing at a spot its story starts by itself.
Spots like this one are the stops myTuur strings into tours through Antwerp. In the app, each story begins where you stand: walk up to a spot and it starts, read it on screen or listen as you go, then follow the route to the next one.
What is myTuur?
myTuur is a free city-guide app. Its tours are built from spots, and each spot carries a story that starts when you get there, to read or to listen to as you like.