Antwerp has been a diamond city for more than 500 years. Polishers were working there by the 15th century, the city led the European trade in the 1500s, and from the late 19th century it became the main market where rough and polished diamonds change hands. Most of the cutting has since moved to India, but a large share of the world's diamonds still passes through a few streets near Antwerp's central station.
From Bruges to Antwerp
In the Middle Ages the leading port of the Low Countries was Bruges. Diamond polishers worked there, along with goldsmiths and traders selling to the Burgundian court. As the waterway linking Bruges to the sea silted up during the 15th century, foreign merchants shifted their business to Antwerp on the Scheldt river, and skilled trades followed them.
Records show diamond workers active in Antwerp during the 15th century, and the city's polishers soon formed their own guild structures. By the early 1500s Antwerp was the busiest commercial port in northern Europe.
The Lodewyk van Berquem legend
Belgian diamond lore credits one man, Lodewyk (or Louis) van Berquem of Bruges, with inventing the modern way to polish diamonds. The story says that around the 1470s he discovered that diamond powder mixed with oil on a spinning iron wheel could grind facets in a regular, symmetrical pattern, and that he cut stones for Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy.
Historians treat this as legend. The earliest written source appeared in the 17th century, written by a man who claimed descent from van Berquem, and no records from the 1400s confirm the invention. Diamond polishing with diamond dust was already practiced before his supposed lifetime. The legend persists because it gave the Flemish trade a founding hero.
What is clear is that Flemish workshops did help develop the polishing wheel, called the scaife, and moved cutting from simple shapes toward more facets. The page on the history of faceted gems follows that change from point cut to table cut and rose cut.
The 16th century golden age
After Portuguese ships reached India in 1498, diamonds from the Golconda region began reaching Europe by sea through Lisbon. Portugal routed much of its Asian trade through Antwerp, so Indian rough arrived in the city in larger amounts than ever before.
Jewish families played a large part in this trade. Many Sephardic Jews and New Christians (converts and their descendants) left Spain and Portugal after the expulsions of the 1490s and later persecution. Some settled in Antwerp and worked as merchants and cutters, using family links that ran from Lisbon to the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean.
The golden age ended with war. In 1585 Spanish forces captured Antwerp during the Dutch Revolt, and the rebel provinces then blocked shipping on the Scheldt. Many Protestant and Jewish merchants and skilled workers left, a large number of them for Amsterdam, which became the leading diamond center of the 17th and 18th centuries.
The 19th century revival
Antwerp never lost its diamond trade entirely, but it shrank for two centuries. The revival came in the late 1800s, after the discovery of diamonds in South Africa around Kimberley sent a flood of rough into Europe. Suddenly there was far more rough than the old workshops could handle, and Antwerp's cutters, now using steam-powered wheels, expanded fast.
Dealers formed trading clubs to buy and sell under shared rules. The first, the Diamantclub van Antwerpen, opened in the 1890s, and more followed. These clubs, covered on the page about Antwerp's diamond bourses, let members trade on trust, often sealing a deal with a handshake and the Yiddish word "mazal."
A new wave of Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe arrived around the turn of the 20th century and joined the trade as cutters, brokers and dealers. Cutting also spread into the villages of the Kempen region east of the city, where many families polished stones in small home workshops.
World War II
Germany invaded Belgium in May 1940. Many diamond dealers fled, some to London, New York or Palestine, and a large part of the city's diamond stock was moved out of the country before the occupation. Several of the refugees set up cutting works abroad, helping found industries in Palestine (later Israel) and expanding the trade in New York.
Antwerp's Jewish community suffered terrible losses in the Holocaust. Thousands were deported, and most did not return. After liberation, the Belgian government and surviving traders worked to restart the industry, and returning dealers reopened the bourses. By the 1950s Antwerp was again the main diamond market.
The 20th century and the shift to India
In the postwar decades Antwerp cutters had a name for fine work on larger stones, and the phrase "Antwerp cut" stood for careful proportions and finish. Labor was expensive, though, and the small diamonds that made up most of the rough supply could be cut far more cheaply elsewhere.
From the 1960s onward, Indian traders, many from Jain families with roots in Palanpur in Gujarat, opened offices in Antwerp. They bought rough there and sent it home to be cut in Surat and other Gujarat towns. Over time they became a major part of Antwerp's trading community, alongside the long-established Jewish firms, and later traders from Lebanon, Armenia and elsewhere.
Belgian cutting jobs fell steadily as work moved to India, and later to China and other countries. Antwerp kept the trading, grading and financing side of the business and a smaller number of cutters handling large or unusual stones.
Antwerp's role today
The diamond district is a compact area of a few streets, including Hoveniersstraat, Schupstraat and Pelikaanstraat, beside Antwerpen-Centraal station. It holds the bourses, rough trading offices, banks that lend to the trade, and grading laboratories such as the one run by HRD Antwerp. A lot of rough from Botswana, Russia and other producers passes through the city on its way to cutters.
Antwerp traders and Belgian officials took part in the talks that led to the Kimberley Process for rough diamond certification, discussed on the conflict diamonds page. Since then the city has faced competition from Dubai as a trading hub and from the growth of lab-grown diamonds, but it remains one of the best-known names in the diamond world.
Frequently asked questions
Did Lodewyk van Berquem invent diamond cutting?
Probably not. The story first appears in a 17th-century book by a self-described descendant, and diamonds were already being polished with diamond dust before his supposed lifetime. Historians treat him as a legendary figure.
Why did Antwerp lose its diamond trade to Amsterdam?
After Spanish forces took Antwerp in 1585, the Dutch blocked the Scheldt river, cutting the city off from the sea. Many merchants and cutters moved to Amsterdam, which led the trade for the next two centuries.
Are diamonds still cut in Antwerp?
Some are, mostly large or high-value stones that need expert planning. Most cutting moved to India and other lower-cost countries during the second half of the 20th century, while Antwerp kept its role as a trading center.
What is the Antwerp diamond district?
It is a small, guarded area of streets next to the central station that holds diamond bourses, trading offices, banks and grading labs.