#13. This 🇧🇪Belgian City Has a Funny Legend Behind Its Name👐 & is the Heart of the Global💎Diamond Trade

Located in the Flemish region of Belgium (north Belgium), Antwerp is home to a metropolitan population of over 1.2 million residents (of which you’ll find over 180 nationalities), making it the second largest city in the ‘Battlefield of Europe’, a name earned due to the country’s positioning at the forefront of both 20th-century world wars and the Battle of Waterloo in the 19th-century. 

Known as ‘Antwerpen’ in Dutch and Flemish, and ‘Anvers’ in French, Antwerp has both a practical and humorous origin of its name, depending on who you ask. 

Some ‘Sinjoren’, a nickname for Antwerp inhabitants that derives from the Spanish ‘señor’ and French ‘seigneur’ (‘noblemen’) say the name originates from the Dutch phrase ‘aan de werpe’, meaning ‘at the throw’, a reference to the sand deposits of the Scheldt River (on which it sits). Others may tell you it comes from the phrase ‘hand werpen’, meaning ‘to throw hands’, based on a local legend involving a mythical giant who exacted tolls from Scheldt river ships, chopping off their hands should they fail to pay.

Today, Antwerp boasts one of the largest and busiest ports in the world, the second busiest in Europe behind Rotterdam, is hailed as a burgeoning fashion capital of Europe, thanks to an abundance of esteemed fashion schools and prominent designers, and sees over 85% of the world’s rough diamonds pass through its Diamond District, with an annual turnover in the tens of billions. 

For a metropolis with a small-town feel, you can feasibly mix and match almost any type of activity or site on any given day in Antwerp, making it one of the most underrated cities in Europe and a must-visit on your next trip to one of the ‘Low Countries’.

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