Hell in Antwerp

Some things are left out of official documentation.

Side alter

St Pauls

There is a wonderful mixed Baroque/Gothic church with lots of fancy Baroque ornamentation not far from Antwerp's red light district. It is called St Paul's Church and what they don't tell you the printed documentation is that during a fire which destroyed the roof in the 1960s, the precious paintings were saved by the call girls working nearby. There they were in half undress, carrying huge works from the building into the night.

When you read the chequered histories of such buildings, you wonder that anything is left of the artworks and sculptures at all.

Hell

St Pauls is a strange building. There is a gate at the side, not always open, which leads you to sculpture grottos depicting the tortures awaiting those who go to hell.

Exterior additions over
the hell grottos.