This majestic Flemish city is dotted with renaissance palaces, medieval churches, a brewery, and boasts plenty of great bars, good restaurants including one with a Michelin star and fascinating museums, yet it’s firmly off the tourist trail. It is only a 30 minute train journey from Brussels Gare du Midi which in turn can be reached in two hours from London St Pancras on Eurostar.
Then welcome to Mechelen, the surprisingly low key city that in the 16th century was capital of most of the Low Countries – Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg. Railway enthusiasts may already know that Mechelen’s original 1835 train station was the terminus of continental Europe’s first railway. It is currently is being rebuilt and is part construction site, part futuristic travel hub. But it is only a 15-minute walk through narrow cobbled streets into the heart of the historic town centre, with the Unesco world heritage bell tower of Saint Rumbold’s Cathedral serving as a landmark. Head straight for the stairs up to the belfry if you are feeling fit enough to climb the 538 of them and you will find yourself on an open-air walkway around the top of the tower with spectacular views of this charming city.
The Hof van Buseyden museum will give you a feel of the city’s golden age. The redbrick palace surrounded by ornamental Renaissance gardens once welcomed princes, emperors and figures such as Erasmus and Sir Thomas More. The museum is dedicated to the history of the city and filled with priceless tapestries, baroque sculptures and Flemish old masters such as Peter Paul Rubens and David Vinckboons.
The Kazerne Dossin is a holocaust museum dedicated to Mechelen’s transit camp for the deportation of Jews, Gypsies and homosexuals to Nazi concentration camps. The building is an austere concrete pentagon with four floors dedicated to the victims of wartime antisemitism in Belgium, as well as temporary exhibitions about contemporary human rights abuses across the globe.
There are always plenty of free cultural activities going on at the city’s public library which was converted from a former 17th century monastery.
Mechelen’s other landmark building is Grand Beguinage, a medieval Flemish town-within-a-town initially created as a refuge for lay religious women and now a Unesco world heritage site. It is a labyrinth of narrow alleyways and tiny cottages.
There you will also find Het Anker, a family-run brewery and distillery, which was founded in 1471. A tour includes beer and whisky tastings, and its cosy brasserie is popular for local specialities such as beef carbonnade, a hearty stew slow-cooked in their signature Gouden Carolus beer, or Mechelen’s famous koekouek (cuckoo chicken), served with fresh local asparagus.
Foodies will enjoy the Michelin-starred dining room of Tinelle which offers a €53 (£45) three-course lunch by Flemish chef Ken Verschueren, along with à la carte dishes such as North Sea crab, smoked eel and pigeon.
If you are in Mechelen for a weekend, Saturday is market day in Grote Markt, the city’s main square, which is lined with ancient mansions, guild houses and its palatial 16th-century town hall, a bit like Brussels. This is the place to pick up local cheeses, smoked sausages, shrimps and oysters, and sip chilled Belgian bubbly or beer of course. Cheers to Belgium!
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