Stedelijk Prentenkabinet, print room in Antwerp, Belgium

The Stedelijk Prentenkabinet is Antwerp's municipal print room, housed in the Museum Plantin-Moretus complex at Vrijdagmarkt 22. Its own building, faced in natural stone, was built in 1937–1939 to designs by city architect Emiel van Averbeke, on the corner of Vrijdagmarkt and Heilige Geeststraat. A 2016 extension by noAarchitecten added a ground-floor reading room and four climate-controlled storage floors, with a facade designed by Benoît van Innis.

Max Rooses, curator from 1876, built the graphic collection through purchases such as Édouard ter Bruggen's 2,965 sheets in 1875 and his own 1905 gift of around 150 old-master drawings. A 1936 exhibition of over 2,000 works led Antwerp to found an independent print room, opened on 11 March 1939 by mayor Camille Huysmans with Ary Delen as first curator. A V-bomb hit the Vrijdagmarkt on 2 January 1945; rebuilding finished in 1949.

The name Stedelijk Prentenkabinet marks it as the city's own print collection, opened in 1939. Its profile covers artists born in Antwerp, members of the Sint-Lukasgilde and artists who ran workshops in the city. A separate section documents the iconography of Antwerp: views of the old townscape, the harbour and the city's history.

The print room occupies the corner of Vrijdagmarkt and Heilige Geeststraat, within the Museum Plantin-Moretus complex. A 2016 extension by noAarchitecten added a ground-floor reading room and four climate-controlled storage floors; the facade of this extension was designed by Benoît van Innis. The reading room serves visitors consulting the collection and library.

The museum uses special lighting and storage methods to protect the delicate prints and drawings from damage. This careful preservation allows visitors to see artworks that are hundreds of years old yet still retain their original quality and detail.