Cathedral of Our Lady

Antwerp, Antwerp Province, Belgium

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Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, Belgium, is a towering Gothic masterpiece begun in 1352 on the site of an earlier Romanesque church, taking nearly 170 years to complete its main structure by 1521, with the iconic 123-meter north spire finished in 1518 making it the tallest church tower in the Benelux.

Designed in Brabantian Late Gothic or Flamboyant style by architects like the Appelmans and Keldermans families, its seven-aisled nave, transept, and ambulatory with radial chapels create a vast, light-filled interior supported by ribbed vaults and high stained-glass windows, though the south tower remains unfinished at 65 meters.

Housing treasures like Peter Paul Rubens' Baroque altarpieces including "The Descent from the Cross," it survived iconoclasm, fires, and wars to become Antwerp's cathedral in 1559, symbolizing the city's Golden Age prosperity as a symbol of civic and religious pride.​