Antwerp (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – The Rubens House in Antwerp initiates its tulip festival by hosting 1,000 tulips across its baroque garden, which has a small number of blossoms currently visible. Staff selected the tulip bulbs with precision.
The Rubens House in Antwerp hosts a tulip festival as a springtime celebration, with 1,000 carefully chosen tulips planted in its baroque garden. Out of the many tulips in the garden, only 22 varieties representing 17th-century tulips have been selected to bloom. The garden has welcomed visitors since August, but its design focuses on historical accuracy instead of the typical Dutch tulip tourism guest experiences with their massive blooming tulip fields.
“I think people are a bit poisoned by the image of Dutch tulips, where the brightly coloured tulips are blooming in full fields,”
he says.
“That is not the style we are aiming for, we are really trying to recreate a 17th century baroque garden here. The first tulips have now finished blooming, but many more will grow in the coming weeks.”
Garden curator Klara Alen was responsible for that careful process.
“In the archives I came across a bundle from a notary from 1730, in which an entire tulip trade from that time comes to light. The species were selected on that basis.”
“Not all tulips are open yet, but that is logical because the tulips have different flowering seasons. It is perhaps not a bad thing, because it is not too bombastic.”
“I think it’s a beautiful garden,”
another visitor responds.
“I’ve seen it come into being and it’s really worth coming to see. It’s probably the 15th time I’ve come to see it, and it’s really worth it every time, in every season.”
What is the historical and cultural significance of the Rubens House Tulip festival?
The Rubens House operates as a crucial historical site in Antwerp since it was the studio and residence of Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) and annually welcomes more than 150,000 visitors. Antwerp hosts its annual tulip festival as a tribute to its historical position as a top international trade port when tulip bulbs arrived in Europe from the Ottoman Empire during the 16th century and transformed into expensive commodities.
During the 1630s, “Tulip Mania” tulip bulbs with rare varieties reached prices so high that buyers would spend that amount on houses instead. The tulip market crash destroyed the speculative bubble, but everyone continued to use this flower as an integral part of Flemish gardens during that time period.
Guests at the redeveloped Rubens House garden can enjoy 1,000 tulips, which represent 22 genuine varieties of the 17th-century original design. In addition to the collection, the garden includes flamboyant tulips, which exhibited striking ribboned effects from viruses, just like Rubens valued in his time. The garden renovation fits within Belgium’s developing agritourism expansion because the country experienced a 12% rise in visitor numbers during 2023.
The Rubens House maintains an emphasis on its Baroque heritage, whereas the Netherlands controls the successful modern tulip tourism, which attracts 1.5 million Keukenhof visitors per year. The €30 million investment project for the artist’s residence aims to bring visitors back by 2030 after a complete restoration.
The festival demonstrates Flanders’ economic importance in bulb production since Belgium remains Europe’s top flower exporter, generating €200 million annually from bulb exports. The Rubens House provides history and gardening enthusiasts with a unique experience by emphasising authentic features that differentiate it from commercial tulip displays.
