Let's quote the Financial Times of 2010
'Conveniently compact and admirably attractive, Antwerp has a wealth of beautiful old buildings, striking modern architecture, pretty shops and cosy restaurants and cafés. With more museums, galleries and live venues than most cities of its size (population 460,000), it is excellently placed as a base for many western European centres, with Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Paris little more than an hour away by car or train. London to nearby Brussels is less than two hours by Eurostar.
Antwerp is elegant and well-designed, from its oldest parts – the cobbled streets leading from the central Grote Markt, lined with 16th-century guild houses, and the imposing Stadhuis (town hall), completed in 1566 – to the newest – with some fabulous examples of contemporary architecture dotted all around. There are also whole streets of stunning art nouveau buildings in the south-eastern suburb of Zurenborg.'

Here is a quote from The New York Post (january 2017): 'With its perfectly preserved medieval buildings and ancient cobblestone streets, Antwerp might seem content to rest on historic laurels. In fact, Belgium’s second-largest city is a vibrant, cosmopolitan place where avant-garde fashion, cutting-edge architecture and progressive cuisine flourish. In recent years, urban renewal has come to the gritty docklands of the north (Eilandje) and to the former down-at-the-heels neighborhood (Zuid) in the south.'