Of particular note is the Calvary outside the Church which is made up of 63 life-size statues and nine reliefs executed in a popular and theatrical style.

[1] St. Paul's Church is located in the old city center of Antwerp, just a few steps from the Scheldt river, in a district where formerly sailors used to live.

In the same year, the Our Lady of the Rosary fraternity was founded in the church to celebrate the Battle of Lepanto in which the Spanish fleet defeated the Turks.

When in 1584 Farnese laid siege to Antwerp to reclaim it for the Spanish throne, he had a bridge built over the Scheldt to block supply to the city.

[3] The same artist made the oak organ case in the church in 1654 and together with his son Pieter Verbrugghen II he executed the designs for the high altar in 1670.

The damage was repaired in 1680-81 and at the same time the top of the tower was finished in a Baroque style after a design by Nicolaes Millich.

The church was damaged and all the 17th century stained glass windows, made after designs by Abraham van Diepenbeeck, were destroyed.

In 1833 the interior of the church was changed: the rood screen dating from 1654, which had been executed by Pieter Verbruggen II and his workshop was dismantled to allow an unobstructed view through the nave to the choir.

[2] In April 1968 a fire destroyed the entire roof of the church, damaged the vaults and the interior, completely burned down the top of the Baroque tower and reduced three-quarters of the monastery to ruins.

In 1811 Napoleon donated the paintings to two regional museums: Rubens' St. Dominic to the Musée des Beaux Arts in Lyon, and Boeyermans’ St. Paul to that of Aix-en-Provence.

The 10 confessionals, executed around 1659 by Pieter Verbrugghen I with the assistance of his workshop and other sculptors, are divided in groups of five on the side of both aisles.

The entire wall of each aisle is thus turned into a single united piece of furniture, the iconography of which strives to achieve the same unity and synthesis as the whole structure.

This chapel also holds a Baroque confessional by Willem Kerricx that was originally placed on the north side of the main entrance.

A typical rubensian motif are the dozens of miniature putti and cherubs on the ascending branches of vegetal, Marian symbols on the twisted marble columns.

The Maria Chapel also contains a white marble sculpture of Our Lady of Sorrows by Jan Pieter van Baurscheit de Elder.

[1] The church holds elaborate tomb monuments attributed to Johannes van Mildert, Pieter Verbrugghen II and Andries Colyns de Nole.

St. Paul's Church replaced the original a few years later with a copy made by Andreas Bernardus de Quertenmont, a director of the Antwerp Academy.

Caravaggio 's work, which was a princely gift of Antwerp's leading artists and an expression of their deep religious devotion had become the object of looting by the Austrian rulers.