Instant Cities: Ghent

Ghent › Places and landmarks

City Hall

Stadhuis

A 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.

See it in 3D Watch the tour

City Hall in Instant Ghent

Ghent’s Town Hall is really two buildings in one, as you see at once when you walk around it. On the Hoogpoort stands an exuberant late-Gothic front, full of stone lacework, pinnacles, niches and little balconies: it looks like a stone jewel box. Turn the corner onto the Botermarkt and you face a sober, stately Renaissance front with columns on three storeys, inspired by classical antiquity. The two styles don’t clash; together they tell the story of a city that spent a century building its town hall.

Inside are rooms from different centuries. The Pacification Hall, where the Pacification of Ghent was signed in 1576, has a floor with a maze pattern. The council meets and receptions are held in the Throne Room and the Arsenal Hall, and in the old Collation Hall and the Gothic chapel you see how the city’s rulers once presented themselves. The Town Hall is also where people in Ghent get married: every week couples step out here under the eyes of tourists.

The Town Hall is still the heart of Ghent’s government. The mayor and aldermen work here, and from the balcony on the Botermarkt champions and revellers are cheered.

History

In the Middle Ages the aldermen’s houses stood here, the buildings of the two benches of aldermen who ran the city. By the early 16th century Ghent was so rich and proud that it wanted a town hall to outshine every other in the Low Countries. In 1518 the master builders Rombout Keldermans and Domien de Waghemakere, who also worked in Antwerp and Mechelen, began the late-Gothic wing on the Hoogpoort.

Building soon stalled. In 1539 Ghent rose up against Charles V, lost its privileges and much of its money, and work stopped. Only in the late 16th and early 17th centuries did it go on, now in the new Renaissance style, with the front on the Botermarkt. The wars of religion and lack of money meant the Gothic wing was never finished to the original plan; part of it was only completed in the 19th century.

On 8 November 1576 the Pacification of Ghent was signed in the Town Hall. At a time of war between the Spanish king and the rebellious Netherlands, the provinces agreed to drive out the Spanish troops together and to tolerate each other despite their different faiths. It was a short-lived peace, but an important moment in the history of the Low Countries.

Going to see it

The Town Hall is on the corner of the Hoogpoort and the Botermarkt, between the Belfry and the Vrijdagmarkt. You can’t just walk in: it is a working town hall. You see the inside on a guided tour, held at set times and often booked through Visit Gent. The outside you can of course look at any time, and it is well worth it.

Do walk all the way round the building to see both fronts, and on a Saturday see whether there is a wedding going on.

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. 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.