Talk:Antwerp

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Antwerp article.
Please sign and date your posts by typing four tildes (~~~~). Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic. New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Ask questions, get answers. This is not a forum for general discussion about the article's subject.	Be polite Assume good faith No personal attacks Be welcoming	Article policies No original research Neutral point of view Verifiability

	This article is supported by WikiProject Cities, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to cities, towns, and various other settlements on Wikipedia. For more information, or to get involved, visit the project page.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the Project's quality scale. Please rate the article and then leave a short summary here to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article.
???	This article has not yet been assigned a rating on the importance scale.

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, now in the public domain.

This page relates to the WikiProject Belgium, a project to create and improve Belgium-related Wikipedia articles. If you would like to participate, you can join the project, and help with our open tasks.

WikiProject Echo has identified Antwerp as a foreign language featured article. You may be able to improve this article with information from the Esperanto language Wikipedia.

This Geography article has been selected for Version 0.5 and subsequent release versions of Wikipedia. It has been rated B-Class on the assessment scale (comments).

Why is the Spanish name of Antwerp here??? I understand the French name beacause a part of Belgium speak French.

Contents 1 Why does the population between 1545 and 1570 decline by 60,000? 2 Rubens is a Baroque painter 3 First Skyscrapper in Europe? 4 Why include the French name at all? 5 Diamonds 6 Weapon crest 7 Educational institutions 8 Language 9 St. Anna's Tunnel

[edit] Why does the population between 1545 and 1570 decline by 60,000?

Why does the population between 1545 and 1570 decline by 60,000 as stated by the statistics in the article? 81.151.89.234 22:19, 23 March 2006 (UTC)

Quote from the article: "On November 4, 1576, the Spanish soldiery plundered the town during what was called The Spanish Fury, and 6000 citizens were massacred. Eight hundred houses were burnt down, and over two millions sterling of damage was wrought in the town on that occasion."

Many of the people fled north to the Netherlands.

[edit] Rubens is a Baroque painter

It was claimed that Rubens is not a Baroque painter. This is quite bizarre. See e.g. here:

" The Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens is considered the most important artist of the 17th century, whose style became an international definition of the animated, exuberantly sensuous aspects of baroque painting. "

Or here:

" Estilo: Barroco Centroeuropeo"

Or finally:

"Flemish painter who was the greatest exponent of Baroque painting's dynamism, vitality, and sensuous exuberance."

I think we can safely conclude that Rubens was a baroque painter ;-) Fram 14:29, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] First Skyscrapper in Europe?

Is it true, that the "Farmers tower" in Antwerp was the first skyscrapper in europe? Maybe an interesting information!?--Manfreeed 19:34, 30 September 2006 (UTC)

• This is true, according to emporis: http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=kbctower-antwerp-belgium

the official english name is "KBC Tower" 194.78.199.56 15:51, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Why include the French name at all?

I don't see why people who read this article in English should be given the French, Spanish, or, why not, Italian, Portuguese and Latin names of this city in the first place. Parce que le français est une des trois langues officielles en Belgique contrairement à l'italien, l'espagnol, le portugais et le latin !!!!

This article is in English, and the city of Antwerp is Dutch-speaking. Oui, mais la communauté francophone y est très largement répandue It makes sense to use the English name Antwerp Je suis d'accord; and it is essential to state that the official name is Antwerpen mais aussi Anvers. People who want to look for further information will need that name pourquoi ?. But to include the French name of the city might lead people to thinking that the French name is also official ce qui est vrai, and therefore useful for further research. This is especially the case with Belgian towns, as many foreigners tend to believe that Belgium is French-speaking c'est aussi partiellement vrai, or has a French-speaking majority je sens poindre une pointe de flamingandisme, or uses French as its national official language. None of this is actually true ni complètement faux.

Leaving out the French (and Spanish) name would also bring the articles about Dutch-speaking places more in correlation with other articles on the English version of Wikipedia. The articles on London and Scotland do not state the French and German names. The articles on Geneva and Milan do not include the German names for these cities. And the articles on French-speaking provinces in Wallonia don't contain the Dutch names of "Mons" and "Hainaut". So why should we make an exception for Dutch places? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 84.197.33.214 (talk) 18:10, 4 February 2007 (UTC).

To state that the French name "Anvers" is not official (????) is slightly erroneous: it may not be officially used within the municipality, but the nation of Belgium is officially bilingual (!!!!), and so the central Belgian government must refer to it both in Dutch and French. Furthermore, the Spanish name is historically significant, since Belgium was part of the Spanish Netherlands some four hundred years ago. Djcartwright 23:16, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

And as for the reverse: at least Namur (city) lists "Namen" as the Dutch language version in the intro. I don't think it is unreasonable for major Belgian cities to list both versions, as long as the local name comes first, and the text explains explicitly or omplicitly which language is the local language. Fram 20:04, 10 February 2007 (UTC)

The introduction to Brussels has the city's German name! French is not a foreign language in Belgium, I don't see why all cities shouldn't have both versions. It's easy enough to tell from the rest of the article what the local language is.GSTQ 04:59, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

Let me say that I am in favour of including the Spanish and French names of the city. Both Amberes and Anvers have seen considerable historic use and it is useful to make it clear that these different names all refer to the same place. Obviously there are those who wish to expunge all trace of the past but this won't do. Augusta2 00:01, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Diamonds

Isnt the place famouse for diamond trade? Cacophony 03:46, 16 February 2007 (UTC)

Yes, Antwerp is the only city in the world with four diamond bourses, three for gemstones and one for boart. Augusta2 00:03, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

Should this information be included in the article? I came here hoping to read something about the Antwerp diamond trade and was disappointed not to find anything. -Sarfa 05:18, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

It most definitely should, it's pretty much the only recent thing antwerp is renowned for.. i'll try to find some interesting articles about it and add some more info here.. Fisheke 08:28, 18 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Weapon crest

Are you sure that is the weapon crest/coat of arms? I live in Antwerp and have never seen it before, I think it's this: http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/5237/untitledoh2.png

[edit] Educational institutions

College is not an adequate translation of "hogeschool". The closest UK English offers is "polytechnical college" but since the transformation of all polytechnical colleges into universities in that country, one hesitates to use the term. Personally I would let "hogeschool" stand, but if it must be translated I suggest using "College of Further/Higher Education". It should be pointed out that the Flemish hogescholen have adopted the Ba(chelor)Ma(ster) structure. Augusta2 00:18, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Language

I don't want to start anything, but I just reverted an edit that changed all instances of "Dutch" language to "Flemish". I don't mind either way, and would accept it completely if discussing pronunciation, word choice, Flemish language literature and theatre and the "language on the street", but it seems to be a touchy enough point for some that I think consensus should be reached. Somewhat unrelated, I also reverted changing "Scheldt" to "Schelde". This is the English Wikpedia, so the English name of the river should be used. Ideas, anyone? --Stomme (talk) 06:07, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

The language is Dutch, not Flemish, so I agree with your reverts (also for Scheldt). Fram (talk) 09:08, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

I also completely agree with Dutch instead of Flemish, which is officially just a dialect. Also the correct name of the river is Scheldt in English (and Escaut in French). Fisheke (talk) 01:34, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the comments. I just wanted there to be some documentation on the talk page in case the issue comes up again. --Stomme (talk) 01:58, 15 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] St. Anna's Tunnel

I was wondering where the St. Anna's Tunnel is mentioned in this article. It does not seem to be. I just uploaded a photo on wikicommons that can be found |here if somebody wants to use it. Meanwhile, if I get down to searching for the article on this tunnel and dont find one, I will write it up. Prashanthns (talk) 20:38, 4 April 2008 (UTC)