Instant Cities: Ghent

Ghent › Places and landmarks

Groot Vleeshuis

The 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.

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Groot Vleeshuis in Instant Ghent

Photo: Vandevorst, Kris, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Great Butchers’ Hall is a long, low hall of grey natural stone on the Leie, with stepped gables at both ends and a row of small dormers. From outside it looks modest, but step inside and you look straight up: the timber roof, an ingenious web of 15th-century oak beams, spans the whole hall without a single pillar in the middle. It is one of the finest medieval timber structures in the country.

Under those beams dozens of Ghent hams still hang drying, as the butchers did centuries ago. Today the hall is a showcase for East Flemish regional produce. You can taste and buy: Ghent mustard, neuzekes (Ghent’s purple cone-shaped sweets), local cheeses, jenever, beer and of course ham. There is also a café where you can eat a regional dish.

Outside, look at the little houses leaning against the wall on the Groentenmarkt: the penshuisjes (tripe houses). That is where the cheaper offal and tripe were sold, which were not allowed in the hall itself. At the back of the hall is a small chapel where the butchers had their mass. Visit it in 3D ›

History

In the Middle Ages meat could not just be sold anywhere in Ghent. The butchers’ guild had the monopoly, and all fresh meat had to be offered in this one covered hall, under the city’s supervision. That way the city could check that the meat was fresh and the right taxes were paid. The Great Butchers’ Hall was built between 1406 and 1419, on the site of an older meat hall.

The butchers’ guild was one of the richest and most powerful in the city, and membership passed from father to son. For centuries the people of Ghent came here to buy their meat. The tripe houses were later built against the wall for selling offal and sausages, which the butchers did not want inside the hall.

When the guilds disappeared at the end of the 18th century, the hall lost its purpose. It was used as a warehouse, among other things, and fell into disrepair. After a thorough restoration it gained a new role at the start of the 21st century as a meeting place for good East Flemish food, and so the hams hang there again as they used to.

Going to see it

The Great Butchers’ Hall is on the Groentenmarkt, between the Korenmarkt and the Gravensteen, on the Leie. It is free to visit during the opening hours of the shop and café, usually Tuesday to Sunday. Pop in quickly to look at the roof, or take your time to taste and have lunch.

It is the ideal place to take an edible souvenir of Ghent home. From across the Leie you get the best view of the hall’s long front.

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. 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. 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.