Historic Cities · Belgium
Ghent through the ages
Ghent is a city and a municipality in the East Flanders province of the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the province and the third largest in the country, after Brussels and Antwerp. It is a port and university city.
Ghent in 1350
Ghent of the Weavers
This is Ghent at the height of its cloth industry: a river city of water-powered mills, crowded quays and the guilds' rising power. The walk follows the rivers and marketways where English wool arrives, fulling hammers beat the cloth, stepped-gabled staple houses line the Graslei and Korenlei, and the belfry ascends above the cloth hall.
A densely roofed medieval skyline of red clay tiles and dark timber gables rises from a ring of stout stone walls. The Leie and Scheldt thread through quays crowded with barges, warehouses and fulling-mills; stepped gables and narrow brick façades line the waters. Stone towers — the Gravensteen's keep and the belfry under construction — puncture the roofs, while guild banners and the soot-darkened timber of workshops mark the city’s scale and industry.
The walk — 20 streets, squares and views
Leie–Scheldt Confluence → De Reep Quays → Approach to the Gravensteen → Gravensteen Castle → St Michael's Bridge → Graslei Quay → Korenlei Quay → Fulling-mills on the Leie → Korenmarkt Square → Belfry and Cloth Hall → …
Step inside — 12 interiors
Weaver's Loft · Great Hall · Counting Room · Merchants' Exchange Hall · Fulling Mill Hall · Inspection Floor · Counting Chamber · Nave and Side Aisles · Choir and High Altar · Infirmary Ward · Abbey Chapter House · Fish Market Hall
Planned from the Wikipedia record: Ghent.
Ghent in 1913
Ghent of the World's Fair
This is Ghent in the spring and summer of 1913, a medieval centre freshly polished for the International Exposition: restored guild houses, new station architecture and a broad park given over to pavilions and flower shows. The walk moves from the railway arrival and the exposition grounds into the compact city of canals and quays, past trams, cotton-mill chimneys and the three towers that define Ghent's skyline.
Low sandstone and brick guild façades line narrow Quays, their gables freshly cleaned for visitors; the Leie and its channels carry small freighters past cotton-mill chimneys and river-trams. Electric tramlines and gaslit café terraces thread a compact medieval plan of stepped roofs, church spires and the belfry; across the Citadelpark a temporary cluster of exhibition pavilions and flower displays announces the 1913 World's Fair to the city.
The walk — 22 streets, squares and views
The Muide Approach → Gent-Sint-Pieters Station → Flandria Palace Hotel → Citadelpark Approach → Exposition Grounds, Citadelpark → Sint-Pietersplein → Veldstraat → Korenmarkt and Post Office → Sint-Michielsbrug View → Graslei Quays → …
Step inside — 14 interiors
Great Concourse and Waiting Hall · Grand Dining Room, Flandria Palace · Machinery Pavilion Main Hall · Old Flanders Craftsman's Room · Post Office Sorting Hall · Guildhall Great Chamber · Riverside Brasserie Cellar · Wood-Panelled Museum Room · Cloth Hall Merchant Chamber · Choir Chapel with Altarpiece · Cafe Parlor at Vrijdagmarkt · Flower Show Glass Pavilion · Weaving Shed, Coupure Mill · Customs Warehouse Counting Room
Planned from the Wikipedia record: Ghent International Exposition (1913).
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