St. Paul's Church

St. Paul's Church is a Roman Catholic church located at the Veemarkt in Antwerp, Belgium. Dedicated to Paul the Apostle, the church is distinguished by its exterior Gothic architecture and an interior characterized by rich Baroque decoration. It holds a significant collection of paintings by Antwerp's leading artists, including Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Jacob Jordaens, alongside abundant sculpture and church furniture crafted by prominent Antwerp sculptors such as Artus Quellinus the Elder, Pieter Verbrugghen I, Jan Pieter van Baurscheit de Elder, Jan Claudius de Cock, and Andries Colyns de Nole. Of particular note is the Calvary outside the church, which consists of 63 life-size statues and nine reliefs executed in a popular and theatrical style.

The interior of the church is fitted out with Flemish Baroque furniture and decoration. Its collection includes fifty paintings by masters of the Antwerp School, such as Rubens, Van Dyck, Jordaens, David Teniers the Elder, Cornelis de Vos, Gaspar de Crayer, Frans Francken II, Jan Peeters, Abraham van Diepenbeeck, Theodoor Boeyermans, Artus de Bruyn, and Artus Wolffort. The church also holds an abundant collection of sculptures and church furniture. However, the collection suffered losses over time. French revolutionaries confiscated art as part of their confiscation policy, resulting in Rubens's The Great Vision of St. Dominic being moved to the Musee des Beaux-Arts in Lyon and Boeyermans's The Martyrdom of St. Paul being relocated to the Eglise de la Madeleine in Aix-en-Provence. Additionally, Emperor Joseph II of Austria claimed Caravaggio's Madonna of the Rosary, which is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna; a copy by Bernardus de Quertenmont, then director of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp, remains in the church's altar of the Holy Rosary.

Situated in the old city center of Antwerp near the Scheldt river, in a former sailors' district known as the Schipperskwartier, the church exterior is primarily executed in the Brabantine Gothic style. This architecture is austere with little exterior decoration, which is common for churches of mendicant orders. While brick was used for the interior walls, the outer vestments and structural components are made of Ledian sandstone. The facade exhibits Renaissance characteristics. The tower was rebuilt in the late 17th century with a Baroque top designed by Nicolaes Millich after the 1679 fire. A Baroque portal dating to 1734 stands at the angled corner of Veemarkt and Zwartzustersstraat. The arch above the gate features a tympanum sculpture by Jan Claudius de Cock, also from 1734, depicting Our Lady of the Rosary giving the rosary to Saint Dominic and Catherine of Siena, the reformer of the Dominican Order. Inside, cylindrical columns are topped with capitals decorated with cabbage leaves.

St. Paul's Church is located at the Veemarkt in Antwerp, Belgium, and functions as an active parish church under the Diocese of Antwerp. Following the 1968 fire, a volunteer association known as the Sint-Paulusvrienden Antwerpen formed and made substantial contributions to the restoration, preservation, and promotion of the church between 1982 and 2008. In recognition of these efforts, the association's delegate administrator Raymond Sirjacobs was awarded the City Medal of Antwerp in 1999. Another church in the same parish is the Kerkschip Sint-Jozef, located at kaai 25A in the Houtdok.