Since 1606, King Philip III of Spain accepted the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for himself and for his successors, establishing in his first Constitutions (1616) that it should be directed by natural persons from any of the Seventeen Provinces of the Netherlands, or by descendants of these.

Jan Van Vucht, representative in Madrid of Balthasar Moretus, commissioned the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens in 1636 the painting of the Martyrdom of Saint Andrew, which after his death was placed on the main altar of the Hospital of San Andrés's Church.

With the confiscation of the assets of hospitals and houses of mercy, decreed by Godoy in 1798, the Royal Delegation of San Andrés de los Flamencos had to go through very serious crises, and was on the verge of disappearing.

On November 30, 1877, the feast of San Andrés, those active representatives of the Kingdom of Belgium inaugurated, with the assistance of King Alfonso XII and the Princess of Asturias, Isabel of Bourbon, a new hospital and a new church on Claudio Coello Street, in the modern expansion of Madrid promoted in those years by the financier Marquis of Salamanca.

The Foundation radically changed its character and functions after requesting King Juan Carlos I of Spain to transform it into a cultural entity, abandoning the charitable and welfare purpose that had originated it.

The architects Solans - Briales del Amo created a modern cultural center, integrating into the old building new spaces for an auditorium, exhibition halls, library, technical services, and offices.

[3] The Foundation has carried out more than 60 exhibitions, some of special relevance, such as those dedicated to the photographs of Edward Steichen, René Magritte and Man Ray, to scientific instruments, astrolabes and clocks from the 16th century from the Leuven mathematical studies, to the works on paper by Rembrandt and Van Dyck, to Christophe Plantin and the Flemish printers of the 16th and 17th centuries, to the cartographers from Flanders and the Netherlands such as Blaeu and Mercator, the illustrator Hergé and his most famous and universal creation, Tintin, and to draftsmen, engravers and painters of modern and avant-garde art such as Félicien Rops, M. C. Escher, Paul Delvaux, Ramón Casas or Toulouse-Lautrec.

Outside the Spanish capital, the Foundation has organized exhibitions such as "Philip I the Handsome, beauty and madness", first in Burgos, the city where the monarch died in 1506, and later in Bruges, his birthplace and resting place of his ancestors.

The museum was made up of pieces by Rubens, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Anton van Dyck, David Teniers II, Jordaens, Francken, de Vos, etc.

The conferences organized by the Carlos de Amberes Foundation deal with historical-cultural, Europeanist issues or those related to commemorations of famous historical figures and major events.

Other series of conferences have been dedicated to the figures of the Duke of Alba, William of Orange, Joanna the Mad, the siege of Breda in 1625, the painters Van Dyck, Frans Hals and Vermeer, or Paul Delvaux.

Regarding the conferences with Europeanist content, it is worth noting the presence at the Foundation of a large number of relevant figures from Spanish and European politics: Leo Tindemans, Philippe Maystadt, Guy Spitaels, Willy Claes, Alexandre Lamfalussy, Jacques Santer, Jean-Luc Dehaene, Wim Kok, Jean-Claude Juncker, Felipe González, José María Aznar, Javier Solana and Joaquín Almunia.