Historic Inner Town, Ghent

An audio-visual display about Ghent of 30 minutes duration is held in the Cloth Hall.

The Louis XIV style jailer's house of the former prison is built on to the north side of the Belfry. There is a relief known as "Mammelokker" above the doorway. It depicts the old man Cimon, who has been condemned to death by starvation, being suckled by his daughter.

At the western end of the Hoogpoort is the Groentenmarkt, originally a fish market and since the 18th C. a vegetable market. In the Middle Ages the pillory stood here. A mustard factory and shop are in one of the surrounding houses.

On the west side of the market is the long Groot Vleeshuis, a medieval covered meat market with a guild house, chapel and numerous gables in the roof. The building originated in 1406-1410 and was restored in 1912. At the south end of the Vleeshuis is the "Penshuizeken" (entrails cottage) where the poor were given the entrails of slaughtered animals.

At the south end of the Korenmarkt (corn market), surrounded by 16-18th C. buildings, the business center of old Ghent, the lane known as Klein Turkije branches off. The oldest house is "De rode Hoed" (red hat) from the 13th C., where Albrecht Dürer lived during his stay in the town in 1523. The "Huis der Kruideniers", the guild house of the grocers, is in the same street.

The tower of the Sint-Niklaaskerk dominates the Korenmarkt, an excellent example of Scheldt Gothic. The first work began in the 13th C. and continued with interruptions until the 18th C. The Baroque west gateway to the Korenmarkt dates from 1681. The guilds of businessmen and the chamber of rhetoric 'De Fonteyne' had a chapel in the church.

Opposite the church doorway the architects Cloquet and Mortier attempted to harmonize the Postgebouw, completed in 1903, with the neo-Gothic style of the neighboring historic gables.

The Sint-Michielsbrug crosses the Leie. From the bridge there is a wonderful view of Sint-Niklaas, the Belfry and Sint-Baafs together with the Korenlei and the Graslei with the Gravensteen in the background.

At the far end of the bridge stands the Sint-Michielskerk. Work started on it in 1440 and reached the tower by 1648.

Along the Leie a group of buildings next to the church to the south in Onderbergen street are known as 'Het Pand'. This is a former 13th C. Dominican monastery and is one of the oldest buildings in Ghent. Today it is used by the university.