On 28 August, the Peter Paul Rubenshuis House Museum in Antwerp opened a new wing – the Visitors’ Building, the immersive Rubens Experience, the Library and the luxurious Garden at Hopland 13. That is, from a different street from the main entrance known to thousands of tourists. In announcements such as ‘5 museums to visit in 2024 in Belgium’ on various resources, an error crept in – the Museum itself will be closed for total restoration/renovation until 2030 (so it is planned).

One can sigh about such a distant date, but what has been done in a few years is worthy of admiration and visit. The renowned architectural firm Robbrecht en Daem (Bruges Concert Hall) has created a new modern building, with its columns harmoniously integrated into the old Hopland street. The spiral staircases of the building are reminiscent of Baroque lines with their curves. The museum has long been in need of a library and this time 2,000 metres of books (this is the number of books used by its staff) will be at the disposal of students, researchers, academics, art historians and all its admirers. Peter Paul Rubens was a famous bibliophile and when painting in books he found details of historical facts, clothes and interior decoration of the subjects he painted. The library’s collection includes the unique first Book illustrated by the artist.

The Rubens Experience project, as in any modern museum, tells about the artist’s biography and reveals details of his paintings in an interactive, and not without humour, form.

But the main Wonder of the Rubens House-Museum, the pride of the artist himself – the Garden! Peter Paul, who bought the land on the Wapper in 1610 and laid out a baroque garden around 1620, would have rejoiced at its new design. Under the artist, the flora was more modest (today florists look after 18,000 plants, shrubs and trees), although citrus trees were already present. The colour advisor for the Garden was Antwerp Six fashion designer Dries Van Noten, who combines colours wonderfully in his work and has a beautiful garden near Antwerp. Klara Alen’s ‘consrevator of the Garden’ team did a lot of research work in the archives before starting the renovation. Klara is a young mum and came to the opening ceremony with her 2-month-old baby (and mum). For example, she found an unknown letter by P.P. Rubens to his 2nd wife Helena Fournet about garden plants. The artist and his family spent a lot of time in the Garden. They often had meals in the portico. In Munich’s Alta Pinakothek there is a canvas of the master ‘A Walk in the Garden’. Today the Garden is the end of summer, but in spring florists promise a profusion of blooms (as a tribute to the tulip mania of Rubens’ era, many tulips were also planted).