Instant Cities: Ghent

Ghent › Places and landmarks

Graslei and Korenlei

Graslei en Korenlei

Ghent’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.

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Graslei and Korenlei in Instant Ghent

The Graslei and the Korenlei are the two quays either side of the Leie, in the heart of Ghent, and together the city’s best-known postcard view. On the Graslei, the east side, stands a row of guild houses and warehouses showing almost a thousand years of architecture: from a plain Romanesque granary to ornate Baroque façades. Across the water, on the Korenlei, stand stately mansions and more guild houses. In between lie the little boats, and the Leie drifts slowly towards the centre.

Walk along the Graslei and read the façades like a book. The Guild House of the Free Boatmen is late Gothic, with a ship as its weathervane. The narrow Toll House, where toll was levied on grain, is Flemish Renaissance. The Koornstapelhuis, the grey Romanesque granary with the stepped gable, is one of the oldest houses in town. And the Grain Measurers’ House was for the men who weighed and measured the grain. On the Korenlei, the Guild House of the Unfree Boatmen stands out, with its Baroque front and gilded ship.

Today this is Ghent’s living room. On sunny days hundreds of people sit on the quay wall with their legs above the water, there are café terraces, and the canal boats leave from here. In the evening the façades are softly lit: Ghent has its own lighting plan, and the Graslei is its finest example. The best view of both quays is from St Michael’s Bridge.

History

This stretch of the Leie was Ghent’s medieval port, called ‘Tussen Bruggen’ (Between Bridges). Ghent held the staple right for grain: ships carrying grain on the Leie and the Scheldt first had to offer it for sale here. That right made the city rich and kept its people fed. Boatmen unloaded their cargo, grain measurers checked the measures and the grain was stored in warehouses.

The guilds, the associations of craftsmen and traders, showed off their wealth with splendid houses on the quay. The Koornstapelhuis was built around 1200 as a grain store. The Guild House of the Free Boatmen followed in 1531, the Toll House in 1682 and the Grain Measurers’ House at the end of the 17th century. The free boatmen could sail anywhere; the unfree boatmen only within the city, and they built their own guild house on the Korenlei in 1739.

In the 19th century the port lost its importance and many façades were altered or hidden behind plaster. For the 1913 World’s Fair the Graslei was thoroughly restored, so that visitors could see a medieval Ghent. Some façades were rebuilt from old drawings in the process. The Masons’ Guild House on the Graslei is one such reconstruction: later the real façade turned out to still exist, hidden in a lane by St Nicholas’ Church, where it has since been restored too.

For a long time cars drove along the Graslei and the Korenlei. Since the centre became largely car-free the quays belong to people on foot again, and they have become the place where Ghent comes together, from summer evenings with friends to the Ghent Festival.

Going to see it

The Graslei and the Korenlei are always open to everyone, day and night. They are a few minutes’ walk from the Korenmarkt or St Michael’s Bridge. The guild houses themselves are mostly private or restaurants and cannot be visited as a museum, but some house a restaurant or café you can go into.

To see the quays from the water, take a boat tour: several companies leave from here all year round, for a trip of about forty-five minutes through the old town. Do come back in the evening too, when the façades are lit.

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. BelfryThe 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. 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. 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.