In the city of Antwerp, over 200 statues of The Virgin Mary - Madonna - are looking over the passersby. They come in all shapes and sizes; colourful, monotone, extravagant, with baby Jesus, a sole Mary, crowned, pure, and so many more variants.
There is even a non-profit, Kruis en Beeld VZW, that has indexed all of them. However, they haven’t put them on a map. And that’s exactly my goal: document all the Madonnas of postal code 2000, save their GPS location, and put them on a big map.
The result can you find on this page: The Madonnas of Antwerp.
It is a work in progress: I’ve already mapped some of the statues - some even before I planned to make this map. However, because the GPS locations are off and the photos are not that good, I plan on revisiting the first 46 and properly photograph them.
The journey itself is documented below.
Prologue: 1 ’til 46
When I found out about the Madonnas from Antwerp, my friend Gilles (known from Attimo Olive Oil) and I spent a whole Saturday on a quest to find them all. And did we find a lot of statues!
We covered the South part of Antwerp (het Zuid), then towards the Grand Place via the Kloosterstraat and Nationalestraat.
I never planned to make a map about it back then, so I just took some average photos as a little memory.
Chapter 1: 47 ’til 61
I found out through the website of Kruis en Beeld that one of the statues is located inside De Hofkamer, a beautiful 17th century building with a beautiful painted ceiling.
And yes, there she was, overlooking the courtyard, the first Madonna of the day:
I took some pictures, and went on my way through Antwerp, making my way North.
This one is my favourite of the day
This madonna on the wall of the Church’s wall in the Sint-Paulusstraat was pretty easy to miss:
Just like this Madonna statue, camouflaged in white against the wall:
To see more Madonnas, you can find them here as mentioned.
In the next Chapter I’ll have documented some more. Stay tuned!
Chapter 2: 62 ’til 63
Well this was a short one! I went out on September 20, and quickly realised my camera was low battery. I saw this after I already went back home cause I forgot an SD card. Sundays are my most forgetful days.
I managed to still photograph the following two Madonnas
This beautiful white Madonna with Golden accents can be found on the Amerikalei in Antwerp. The crown and cape are in beautiful Gold, and Mary is holding baby Jesus. Both are crowned.
This Madonna is not really a statue, but worth mentioning:
It’s a relief of Madonna with Child. You can find this one near the KMSKA in Antwerp South, in Leopold de Waelstraat.
