Antwerp Butchers Hall, Belgium - Arts and Museum

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The stylish rooms of the late Gothic Vleeshu is in the Vleeshouwerstraat comprise the previous council assembly room of the butchers' society. The imposing brick structure, built in 1501-04, was intentionally sited close to the Scheldt, allowing the blood of slaughtered animals to run off into the river. The Vleeshuis is now a museum of applied art and archaeology with collections of pre-historic, Egyptian, Roman and Merovingian artifacts; weapons and armor; ceramics; furniture; sculpture and woodwork; and coins. Among its most esteemed possessions are illustrations of the conversion of Saul in 16th C. Antwerp tiles, the Averbode Retable by Pieter Coecke van Aelst.