Instant Cities: Ghent

Ghent › Places and landmarks

Graffiti Street

Werregarenstraatje

The 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.

See it in 3D Watch the tour

Graffiti Street in Instant Ghent

The Werregarenstraatje is a narrow lane between the Hoogpoort and the Onderstraat, a few steps from the Town Hall and the Vrijdagmarkt. It is only short, but every square centimetre of its walls, doors, gutters and sometimes even the ground is covered in graffiti. It is Belgium’s best-known legal graffiti street, and an open-air gallery that never stays the same.

You find all sorts here: colourful, technically brilliant ‘pieces’ by experienced graffiti artists, quick tags, stencils, stickers, political messages, funny little figures and beginners’ first attempts. Because anyone may spray here, everything is painted over all the time. A work you photograph today may be gone tomorrow. On some walls the layers of paint are by now centimetres thick.

The lane is above all a place to look around, take photos and stop for a moment by the artists you often see at work. It is also an interesting contrast with the medieval buildings right next to it: old and new Ghent a few metres apart.

History

The name refers to ‘werregaren’, a kind of yarn or thread that was worked in this area in the Middle Ages: a reminder of the days when Ghent lived from textiles. For a long time it was an ordinary, rather forgotten back street.

In the 1990s the city decided to open the lane to graffiti, as a place where young people and artists could go about it legally. The idea was that there would be less illegal graffiti on historic buildings if there was a place where it was allowed. The lane became a byword in the graffiti world and now draws many tourists too.

Ghent now has more places where graffiti is legal, and the city is known for its street art. Every year new murals appear around town, sometimes by internationally known artists. The Werregarenstraatje remains where that story began.

Going to see it

The Werregarenstraatje is always open and free. You reach it from the Hoogpoort, close to the Town Hall, or from the Onderstraat on the Vrijdagmarkt side. A quick visit takes only a few minutes, but if you look closely you will stay longer.

Want to spray yourself? You may, as long as you respect the neighbours: don’t spray on windows, house doors or parked bikes, and take your empty cans with you.

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. 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. 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.