The claim
A few steps from Antwerp Cathedral, this small corner tavern named after the Renaissance painter Quinten Matsijs claims to be the city's oldest café, trading in a house built in 1565. Its dark, tiled interior has long drawn Flemish writers and artists, and it still serves Belgian beers alongside simple café food.
What the records show
Flanders' heritage inventory does hold the house, under the name it traded as first: object 4389, 't Gulick, at Moriaanstraat 17 on the corner of Hoofdkerkstraat. It dates the core of the corner house to the second half of the 16th century, notes the gable stone recording that the house was called 't Gulick in the year 1565, and says the shopfront was rebuilt and the café interior fitted out to a design of 1946 by the architect Gaston De Pauw. That is a public register carrying the fabric of the claimed age, which is what a B asks for. What no source yet shows is anyone being served a drink here in the 16th century: the register files the building as a town house, and the earliest drinking use we can point at is the 20th-century café. The house's own site says it has been an inn ever since, first under the Gulick name, after the county its merchant guests came from, and it reprints a piece from the Gazet van Antwerpen of 4 November 2022 that repeats the story. Willem Elsschot, Werumeus Buning and Paul van Ostaijen drank here, and several clubs still meet weekly.
| Year | What | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 1565 | Claimed founding | The pub |
| c.1565 | Present building | Flanders heritage inventory 4389, 't Gulick, Moriaanstraat 17 |
What to look for inside
- House built 1565, said to be an inn ever since
- Named after the Renaissance painter Quinten Matsijs
- Haunt of Flemish writers
Visiting
Quinten Matsijs is in Antwerp, Belgium, at Moriaanstraat 17, 2000 Antwerpen (corner Hoofdkerkstraat). We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- www.quintenmatsijs.be/
- ilibrariana.wordpress.com/2018/04/13/literair-en-bibliofiel-antwerpen-wim-hazeu-en-berberg-quinten-matsijs/
- inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be/erfgoedobjecten/4389
- web.archive.org/web/20190921052323/https://inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be/erfgoedobjecten/4389
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
Run this pub? There is a badge for it
Free to put on your own site, no permission needed. It shows what the pub claims and what the records support, and it changes when the data does.
How to use it, and how to change what it says — if you have a document we have not seen, we would like to read it.
