St. John's Canal

This square, where basketball is played joyfully in the summer, used to be a waterway, a canal where small ships unloaded and loaded their goods. The Sint-Jansvliet was constructed in 1201 as the southern moat of Antwerp. Its name is derived from the Sint-Janspoort that was located at the end of Hoogstraat. In 1882, the waterway was filled in. From 1933, the square was called Kleine Tunnelplaats, after the pedestrian tunnel that was built here, but the old name was restored in 1959. The focal point on the Sint-Jansvliet is the entrance building of the Sint-Annatunnel for pedestrians and cyclists. Compagnie Frankignoul was responsible for the tunnel works; the architecture of the superstructure is by Antwerp's chief architect Emiel Van Averbeke. On the corner of Sint-Jansvliet and Plantinkaai stands the Entrepôt de Congo, a beautiful and robust warehouse from 1880. For many years, it was a storage place for furniture and items from grandmother's time that were shipped to America, but at the end of the 1970s, the Entrepôt du Congo was given a residential function. Artist Floris Jespers lived here for many years under the roof. Therefore, it is also called Huize Floris Jespers.

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