During the middle of the sixteenth century, Antwerp's old Gothic city hall, built in 1406, had become too small for the rapidly expanding city, at the time known simply as 'the Metropolis'. The city council decided to build a new city hall just north of the existing one. Having just become the world's most powerful commercial center - eclipsing cities such as Bruges, Genoa and even Venice - the new building was to become a symbol of the city's wealth and power.
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