The centre of town, Grote Markt , is flanked on the eastern side by the Stadhuis , whose incoherent appearance is the result of a half-finished sixteenth-century rebuilding: the plan was to replace the dour medieval original with a delicately fluted Renaissance edifice, but the money ran out halfway through. In front of the Stadhuis, just outside the tourist office, is a modern sculpture showing the town's grotesque mascot, Op Signoorke , being tossed in a blanket. A little way west, the Cathedral of St Rombout (daily: April-Oct 9.30am-5pm; Nov-March 9.30am-4.30pm; free), a gigantic church completed in 1546, dominates the centre of town. The thirteenth-century nave has all the cloistered elegance of the Brabantine Gothic style, and in the south transept hangs Van Dyck's muscular Crucifixion , while the elaborate doors at the rear of the high altar hide the remains of St Rombout himself. The tower contains Belgium's finest carillon, a fifteenth-century affair of 49 bells, which resounds over the town on high days and holidays. There are also regular, hour-long performances on Mondays and Saturdays (11.30am), Sundays (3pm), and from June through to mid-September on Monday evenings (8.30pm).

A short walk north at the end of St Jansstraat, the Museum Hof van Busleyden (Tues-Sun 10am-5pm, Sat & Sun 2-6pm; a?¬2) is housed in a splendid sixteenth-century mansion and includes a display of miscellaneous bells, a room devoted to Mechelen's guilds, a range of Gallo-Roman artefacts, and an unusual assortment of unattributed paintings. Biest leads southeast from here to Veemarkt where the church of St Pieter en St Paulus (daily: Apr-Oct 1-5pm; Nov-March noon-4pm; free) was built for the Jesuits in the seventeenth century. The interior has an oak pulpit that pays tribute to the order's missionary work, carved in 1701 by Hendrik Verbruggen, with a globe near its base attached to representations of the four continents known at the time.