Instant Cities: Ghent

Ghent › Places and landmarks

St Bavo’s Cathedral

Sint-Baafskathedraal

Built 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.

See it in 3D Watch the tour

St Bavo’s Cathedral in Instant Ghent

St Bavo’s Cathedral is the cathedral of the diocese of Ghent and one of the great Gothic churches of the Low Countries. From outside you mostly see its heavy 89 m west tower, which rises above the roofs of the old town and, with the Belfry and St Nicholas’ Church, forms Ghent’s famous row of three towers. Step inside and you can see how the church grew over three centuries: a lofty Gothic choir, a lighter late-Gothic nave and, underneath, a crypt from Romanesque times.

Its treasure is the Ghent Altarpiece, the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, which Hubert and Jan van Eyck finished in 1432. On its twelve panels you see Adam and Eve, singing angels, God enthroned and, in the middle, the Lamb on the altar, worshipped by saints, prophets, knights and pilgrims from every corner of the world. The painters used oil paint with a precision never seen before: you can make out single hairs, jewels catching the light and more than forty kinds of plant you can still recognise today.

But the cathedral is more than that one painting. There is Rubens’ St Bavo Entering the Monastery (1624), a lavish rococo pulpit by Laurent Delvaux in oak and white and black marble, Baroque bishops’ tombs and one of the largest crypts in Belgium, with wall paintings and church treasures. There is so much that you can easily spend a couple of hours.

History

A small church dedicated to St John the Baptist stood here as early as the 10th century. In the 12th century it was replaced by a Romanesque church, whose crypt survives. From the 13th century on, a new Gothic church was built bit by bit: first the choir, then in the 15th and 16th centuries the tower and the nave. That is why one building shows three centuries of architecture.

In 1432 the altarpiece was installed in the chapel of Joos Vijd and his wife Elisabeth Borluut, who had commissioned it. In 1500 the Emperor Charles V, born in Ghent, was baptised here. After the Ghent revolt of 1539 he had the old St Bavo’s Abbey torn down to build a fortress to keep the city in check; the monks moved to St John’s, which therefore became St Bavo’s. When the diocese of Ghent was founded in 1559, it became a cathedral.

The altarpiece has led an adventurous life. During the iconoclastic fury of 1566 it was hidden in the tower. French revolutionaries took the central panels to the Louvre; they came back after Napoleon’s fall. The side wings were sold in 1816 and ended up in Berlin, until after the First World War they had to be returned to Ghent. In 1934 two panels were stolen. The one with John the Baptist came back, but the Just Judges has never been found: what you see now is a copy by Jef Van der Veken. In the Second World War the Nazis seized the altarpiece; the American ‘Monuments Men’ found it in 1945 in a salt mine in Austria.

Since 2012 the altarpiece has been restored panel by panel by the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage. Under later overpainting the Van Eycks’ original paint came to light again, the best-known surprise being the startlingly human face of the Lamb. In 2021 a new visitor centre opened in the cathedral, where you can also experience the painting’s story in augmented reality.

Going to see it

The cathedral stands on Sint-Baafsplein, a few minutes’ walk from the Belfry and the Korenmarkt. You can usually walk into the church itself for free, outside services. For the Ghent Altarpiece you buy a ticket: it includes a tour with a tablet or AR glasses through the painting’s story, after which you stand face to face with the original. Allow an hour to an hour and a half, and in high season it is best to book ahead.

It is a place of worship: keep your voice down, cover your shoulders if asked and don’t wander about during mass. Photos without flash are allowed in most places, but not everywhere.

More in Ghent

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. 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.