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Home of the Primate of Belgium, MECHELEN was one of the more powerful cities of medieval Flanders, even overshadowing Brussels when the Burgundian prince Charles the Bold decided to base his administration here in 1473. Nowadays, Mechelen has a surprisingly provincial atmosphere, a likeably low-key contrast to Antwerp and Brussels.

The centre of town, Grote Markt , is flanked on the eastern side by the Stadhuis , whose incoherent appearance is the result of a half-finished sixteenth-century rebuilding: the plan was to replace the dour medieval original with a delicately fluted Renaissance edifice, but the money ran out halfway through. In front of the Stadhuis, just outside the tourist office, is a modern sculpture showing the town's grotesque mascot, Op Signoorke , being tossed in a blanket. A little way west, the Cathedral of St Rombout (daily: April-Oct 9.30am-5pm; Nov-March 9.30am-4.30pm; free), a gigantic church completed in 1546, dominates the centre of town. The thirteenth-century nave has all the cloistered elegance of the Brabantine Gothic style, and in the south transept hangs Van Dyck's muscular Crucifixion , while the elaborate doors at the rear of the high altar hide the remains of St Rombout himself. The tower contains Belgium's finest carillon, a fifteenth-century affair of 49 bells, which resounds over the town on high days and holidays. There are also regular, hour-long performances on Mondays and Saturdays (11.30am), Sundays (3pm), and from June through to mid-September on Monday evenings (8.30pm).

A short walk north at the end of St Jansstraat, the Museum Hof van Busleyden (Tues-Sun 10am-5pm, Sat & Sun 2-6pm; ¬2) is housed in a splendid sixteenth-century mansion and includes a display of miscellaneous bells, a room devoted to Mechelen's guilds, a range of Gallo-Roman artefacts, and an unusual assortment of unattributed paintings. Biest leads southeast from here to Veemarkt where the church of St Pieter en St Paulus (daily: Apr-Oct 1-5pm; Nov-March noon-4pm; free) was built for the Jesuits in the seventeenth century. The interior has an oak pulpit that pays tribute to the order's missionary work, carved in 1701 by Hendrik Verbruggen, with a globe near its base attached to representations of the four continents known at the time.