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Architecture in Belgium

Ghent

Civic Buildings

Belfry

Jan Van Haelst and Filips van Beergine: Belfry, Ghent. 1300-1338. Spire restored by Valentin Vaerewijck, 1913.

The belfry at Ghent is a fortified guard tower; the lowest chamber was used to store the city charters at one time. It is 320 feet high. It has been rebuilt six times since it was first constructed; the current spire dates from 1911-1913 restoration by Valentin Vaerewijck. Comparison with old photographs shows that Vaerewijck radically changed the profile of the tower in his rebuilding. Such dramatic changes were not uncommon in restorations of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The copper dragon at top was first placed there in 1377; the present one is a copy.

Guild Houses. Graslei, Ghent. 1200-1700.

The Guild Houses in Ghent along the Graslei are among the most important from the renaissance era. The top photograph shows, from right to left: the rear of the Post Office (1910), the House of Free Boatmen (1531), the House of Grainweighers (1698), the tiny Custom House (1682), the Grain warehouse (1200), and the House of Masons (1527). The grain warehouse from 1200 is one of the oldest commercial buildings in Belgium.

Town Hall, Ghent.
Right side by Rombout Keldermans and Domenik de Waghemakere, c. 1482-1539; left side c. 1635, with 18th century additions.

The town hall in Ghent is larger than that of Audenarde, and was built over a long period of time. The late Gothic right side was built by Rombout Keldermans and Dominik de Waghemakere from 1482-1539. The left side, which is simpler and more classical, was constructed in 1635, with eighteenth century additions.

Old Fish Market, Ghent

Artus Quellin, 17th c.

photos by J. Howe

Boston College
Jeffery Howe, 1997