Edegem (first mentioned as Buizegem in 1173) is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. The municipality only comprises the town of Edegem proper. On January 1, 2006 Edegem had a total population of 21,668. The total area is 8.65 km² which gives a population density of 2,504 inhabitants per km². The old Sint-Antoniuskerk (church of Saint Anthony) is no longer open to the public. It is not sure when it was first built (some sources go back as far as the 16th century).

The absence of heavy industry makes Edegem a typical commuter town. Despite its location next to the metropolis of the city of Antwerp, Edegem is not fully urbanized.

The Sint-Antoniuskerk is a gothic church that was built between the 16th and 17th century.

In 1884 a cave was built, after the cave present at the site of Our Lady of Lourdes, as a pilgrimage site. It became a very popular place of worship when truckloads of Christians came to visit the site.

When the population of Edegem grew in the beginning of the 20th century the Sint-Antonuiskerk in the center of town became too small. Thus plans were made to build an expansion. But when World War I broke out in 1914, the expansion was delayed. Afterwards the city council and the local religious institutions decided to build a new place of worship near the site of the Cave of Our Lady of Lourdes due to the large amount of pilgrims visiting the site. The church was designed by architect Louis De Vooght to be a neo-Byzantine basilique. Construction began in September 1931 and ended in the first half of 1933.

Andreas Vesalius (31 December 1514 – 15 October 1564) was a Flemish anatomist, physician, and author of one of the most influential books on human anatomy, De humani corporis fabrica (On the Structure of the Human Body). Vesalius is often referred to as the founder of modern human anatomy. Vesalius is the Latinized form of Andries van Wesel. He is sometimes also referred to as Andreas Vesal, André Vesalio and Andre Vesale.

Vesalius was born to Andries van Wesele and Isabel Crabbe on 31 December 1514, in Brussels, which was then part of the Habsburg Netherlands. His great grandfather, Jan van Wesel, probably born in Wesel, received his medical degree from the University of Pavia and taught medicine in 1528 at the then newly founded University of Leuven. His grandfather, Everard van Wesel, was the Royal Physician of Emperor Maximilian, while his father, Anders van Wesel, went on to serve as apothecary to Maximillian, and later a valet de chambre to his successor Charles V. Anders encouraged his son to continue in the family tradition, and enrolled him in the Brethren of the Common Life in Brussels to learn Greek and Latin according to standards of the era.