Antwerp - St James' Church

(Local Name: Sint-Jacobskerk) The 15th to 17th C. Gothic Sint-Jacobskerk, its exterior at present under restoration, faces onto Sint-Jacobsstraat on the north side of Lange Nieuwstraat.

With its sumptuously ornate Baroque interior Sint-Jacobskerk is one of the richest ecclesiastical buildings in Antwerp, blessed with an exceptional endowment of art treasures. It was the church at which the city's patrician families worshipped, and they regularly commissioned leading artists to design their private chapels, altars and tombs.

Each family had its own seats in the choir stalls, the 12th along on the left being that of the Rubens family for instance, marked, as are the others, with the family arms.