Ekeren

Ekeren is a northern district of the municipality of Antwerp in the Flemish Region of Belgium. The suburb celebrated its 850th birthday in 2005; the name of the town was first mentioned in 1155, as "Hecerna". The name possibly originates from Vikings who settled there in the ninth century after using the oak trees. Ekeren used to be the home town of the Germinal Ekeren football team until Germinal merged with K. Beerschot V.A.C. into K.F.C. Germinal Beerschot in 1999. The new club is based in the Olympisch Stadion in Antwerp. Ekeren is home to the Jozef Pauly municipal academy for music and word, which has around 2000 pupils as of 2004.

The academy hosts many musical ensembles; the Jozef Pauly flute ensemble has made concert tours to Australia and the United States. Municipal music academies in Belgium are distinct from the public educational system; attending these academies is entirely optional, and merely a hobby for most of the students. In 1703, Ekeren was the site of a battle in the War of the Spanish Succession, known as the Battle of Ekeren. Some street names in Ekeren still refer to this historical event.