View of Antwerp

Colored calcography of the city of Antwerp from Civitates Orbis Terrarum (vol. I, plate 17), monumental work edited by Georg Braun with engravings by Franz Hogenberg, based on a drawing by Ludovico Guiccardini from 1567. This bird's-eye view shows Antwerp at the beginning of the Eighty Years' War, highlighting the pentagonal citadel with five star-shaped bastions built by the Duke of Alba, where a bronze sculpture was erected in 1571 cast from captured Dutch cannons. The image reveals the urban axis connecting the fortress with the Grote Markt, political and commercial center surrounded by the town hall and guild houses. It visually documents the apogee of Antwerp as one of the main commercial and financial centers of Early Modern Europe.