Ghent - Museum of Decorative Arts

(Local Name: Museum voor Sierkunst) At the end of the Korenlei, where the Lieve, the first sea canal of the 13th C., branches off from the Leie, Jan Breydelstraat turns off to the left. The splendid house, No. 5 dated 1754, was the town house of the de Coninck family who furnished it in grand style. The individual rooms of the house are open as a museum (Museum voor Sierkunst = Museum of Decorative Arts) and contain some later works of art, furniture, (including a sofa and two armchairs which belonged to the Tsarina Catherine II), porcelain, glass and paintings. The writing desk of the French king Louis XVIII, who had fled to Ghent in 1815 from Napoleon I, returned from Elba, is on display.