Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library, Heritage library in central Antwerp, Belgium

The Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library occupies a 17th-century former Jesuit sodality house on Hendrik Conscienceplein, its pale tan and grey stone facade inscribed "STADSBIBLIOTHEEK" above a round-arched entrance with a bronze seated statue of Hendrik Conscience. Inside, dark wooden shelving rises in vertical bays around an open central well, with two gallery levels behind black metal railings and a slatted wooden staircase. Green panels high on the wall carry gold lettering reading "OUD EN NIEUW" and "SCHOONE LETTEREN".

In 1481 city advocate Willem Pauwels left 41 books to Antwerp to help the magistrates' clerks; the collection was housed in the City Hall in 1505 and lost in the 1576 fire during the Spanish Fury. Christophe Plantin and his successors then gave a copy of every book they printed, and in 1617 the city and seminary libraries merged. Librarian Frans-Hendrik Mertens, appointed in 1834, built the Dutch literature collection, and in 1883 the library moved to the former Jesuit Sodality on the square renamed for Conscience.

The library is named after Hendrik Conscience, the Flemish writer whose statue stands in front of the building; it was unveiled at the 1883 opening, when the square was renamed Hendrik Conscienceplein. Inside, green panels above the galleries bear the gold lettering "OUD EN NIEUW" and "SCHOONE LETTEREN", marking the Dutch literature and early printed books that remain collection priorities.

The library stands on Hendrik Conscienceplein, opposite the Carolus Borromeuskerk, in Antwerp's old centre. The bronze statue of Hendrik Conscience sits in the round-arched entrance, reached by stone steps with balustrades. The reading room is on upper levels, up a slatted wooden staircase; ask staff to retrieve stored volumes, which are not all on open shelves.

The library's 1883 move to the former Jesuit Sodality house on the Jezuiëtenplein was marked by a public festival at which Hendrik Conscience's statue was unveiled, and the square was renamed after him. The building's facade still reads "STADSBIBLIOTHEEK" above the entrance arch.