Instant Cities: Ghent

Ghent › Places and landmarks

Belfry

Belfort

The town’s 91 m tower, begun in 1313. Ghent kept its charters of rights here, and watchmen looked out for fire and enemies. A gilded dragon keeps watch on top. With the Cloth Hall beside it, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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Belfry in Instant Ghent

The Belfry is the middle one of Ghent’s three towers and, at 91 m, the tallest belfry in Belgium. While the church towers either side speak of God, the Belfry stands for the city itself: for the freedom and the power of its citizens against the count. At the top of the spire turns a gilded dragon, the symbol of Ghent, keeping watch over the city with its head into the wind.

Inside, you climb past the watchmen’s rooms and the halls where the city archive was once kept to the bell floor. There hangs the carillon, one of the largest in the country with over fifty bells, and you can see the huge drum that plays them automatically. From the gallery you get one of the best views over the city: St Bavo’s right next door, the Gravensteen, the Leie with the Graslei and, on a clear day, far beyond Ghent. A lift takes you most of the way up.

Against the tower stands the Cloth Hall, where the cloth merchants had the quality of their woollen cloth inspected: the source of Ghent’s medieval wealth. On the Goudenleeuwplein side is the Mammelokker, the old entrance to the town jail. The sculpture above it shows an old man in his cell being breastfed by his daughter, a story of mercy from Roman antiquity. On the little square beside it stands the cracked bell Triomfante.

History

Building began in 1313, when Ghent was, after Paris, one of the largest cities in northern Europe. The builders worked from a design on parchment that still exists and is among the oldest architectural drawings of the Low Countries. By around 1380 the stone tower was standing, with a wooden spire on top. In the ‘secreet’, a strongroom behind thick iron doors, the city kept its privileges: the charters with the rights it had wrested from the counts.

The great bell Roland rang for fire, for war and to call the citizens together. People in Ghent still know the rhyme ‘My name is Roland; when I toll there is fire, when I ring there is a storm in Flanders.’ After the revolt of 1539 the Emperor Charles V punished the city: its privileges were revoked and Roland had to come down. The Hemony bell Triomfante, which later hung in the tower, cracked in 1914 and now stands at the foot of the Belfry.

The Cloth Hall was built against the tower from 1425, but was never quite finished until the early 20th century. The spire too went through many versions: a wooden one, a Baroque one, a cast-iron one from the 19th century and finally today’s, built for the 1913 World’s Fair after the original medieval design. The oldest dragons, from the 14th century, are kept inside the tower.

In 1999 the Belfry, with the Cloth Hall and the Mammelokker, was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List, among the belfries of Belgium and France. Together these towers tell the story of the free medieval towns, where citizens ran their own city.

Going to see it

The entrance is on the Sint-Baafsplein side, between the cathedral and the town hall. You buy a ticket and go up on foot or by lift; the last stairs to the bells and the gallery are narrow and steep. Come on a clear day for the view if you can, and check whether there is a carillon concert that day: then you hear the bells up close.

Allow about an hour. The lift is a big help if you are not steady on your feet, but not every part of the tower can be reached without stairs.

More in Ghent

St Bavo’s CathedralBuilt from the 13th to the 16th century, with an 89 m tower. Inside hangs the Van Eyck brothers’ Adoration of the Mystic Lamb (1432), one of the most famous and most stolen paintings in the world. Its Just Judges panel, stolen in 1934, has never been found. GravensteenThe castle of the Counts of Flanders, built in 1180 by Philip of Alsace. It later served as a court, a prison and even a cotton mill, and got its battlements back around 1900. In 1949 students occupied it, in protest against the price of beer going up. Graslei and KorenleiGhent’s medieval port, on both banks of the Leie. Boatmen unloaded grain here and the guilds built their houses along the quay. The Koornstapelhuis, the grey Romanesque grain store from around 1200, is one of the oldest houses in town. St Michael’s BridgeBuilt at the start of the 20th century, just before the 1913 World Fair. Look east to see Ghent’s three towers in a row: St Nicholas’, the Belfry and St Bavo’s. Behind you stands St Michael’s Church, whose tower was never finished. St Nicholas’ ChurchThe merchants’ church, from the 13th century, in blue-grey Tournai stone: Scheldt Gothic. Its tower sits right on the middle of the roof and doubled as a lookout, long before the Belfry stood. Today it also hosts concerts and exhibitions. City HallA city hall in two styles: ornate late Gothic on the Hoogpoort, sober Renaissance on the Botermarkt. Running out of money and the wars of religion kept halting the building work. The Pacification of Ghent, a peace between the Low Countries’ provinces, was signed here in 1576. VrijdagmarktThe square of markets, feasts and uprisings, where the Counts of Flanders were sworn in. In the middle Jacob van Artevelde, the brewer who led Ghent in 1338, points the way. Across the square stands Ons Huis, the big home of the socialist workers’ movement. Groot VleeshuisThe butchers’ covered meat hall, built from 1406 to 1419. Hams still hang drying under its impressive wooden roof. Today you can buy and taste East Flemish regional produce here. Graffiti StreetThe Werregarenstraatje: since the 1990s anyone may spray paint here, legally. The walls get a fresh layer of paint almost every week, so no two visits look the same. KouterGhent’s smartest square, once a field and a place for parades and archers’ feasts. There has been a flower market here every Sunday since the 18th century, with a brass band in the bandstand. The blue kiosk serves a drink to go with it. VooruitThe party hall of the socialist co-operative Vooruit, opened in 1914: workers came here to dance, for theatre and concerts, and to eat in the café. Artists rescued it from decay in the 1980s. Today it is the arts centre VIERNULVIER. St Peter’s AbbeyThe abbey on the Blandijnberg hill was founded in the 7th century, by Saint Amand as the story goes, and grew into one of the richest in Flanders. The baroque church with its dome (1629-1720) is by Pieter Huyssens. The French dissolved the abbey in 1796; today it is an exhibition hall, with an abbey garden of vines and ruins behind its walls. Gent ZuidUntil 1928 the Zuidstation, Ghent’s first railway station, stood here. Today it is De Lijn’s hub: most city buses start and end here, and the trams pass on their way to the centre and Sint-Pieters. BlaarmeersenGhent’s sports and leisure park, by the Watersportbaan. On hot days the beach on the swimming lake is packed, and joggers run their laps round the 2.3 km rowing course. There is also a campsite, an athletics track and beach volleyball. MammelokkerLook above the door of this little house against the Cloth Hall: a young woman giving an old man her breast. It is the Roman legend of Pero, who nursed her father Cimon when he was left to starve in prison. When it came out, he was set free. The warders of the town prison, which was in the Cloth Hall’s cellars from 1742 to 1902, lived here. Mammelokker is Ghent dialect for breast-sucker. The relief dates from 1741, recarved by Jan Anteunis in 1962. Karel SabbebergGhent’s only mountain, some 30 metres high, and man-made. Until 2003 Ghent skied here on brush mats. In 2019 it was named after the ultrarunner Karel Sabbe, who ran up and down it thousands of times in training. Since 2009 a lookout tower on top looks out over the city. CuberdonsPurple cone-shaped sweets with a runny raspberry heart, sold from little carts on the Groentenmarkt. The tramsDe Lijn’s white and yellow trams, ringing their bells through the narrow streets of the old town. Gentse FeestenTen days every July when the whole old town becomes one of the largest street festivals in Europe. The cycling citySince 2017 cars can no longer drive straight across the centre, and bikes have taken over the streets.