Cogels-Osylei

A street of late 19th-century eclectic villas — one of Europe's best preserved

Address Cogels-Osylei, 2018 Antwerpen

A single street in the Zurenborg district, just south of Berchem station, lined with a procession of villas in every late-nineteenth-century style — Neo-Gothic, Renaissance, Tudor, Moorish, Egyptian, Art Nouveau, Art Deco. The whole development was planned between 1894 and 1906, with the architects working in deliberate counterpoint to produce a street where no two facades repeat.

Walk Cogels-Osylei from end to end, then turn into the side streets — Waterloostraat, Transvaalstraat, Korte Altaarstraat — to see more of the same. None of the buildings are open to the public, but the exteriors are the point. The area is twenty minutes from the centre on tram or a fifteen-minute walk from Berchem station. Combine with a coffee in one of the small cafés in Zurenborg.

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A story
Developed between 1894 and 1906 on land sold off by a single noble family — the De Cogels-Osy d'Anvers — the street was built up with such consistency that the planners insisted every owner consult the same group of architects. The result is an almost theatrical street of Renaissance, Gothic, Tudor, Moorish, and Art Nouveau facades, none repeating.

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