Flanders

The Flemish-speaking provinces of West Vlaanderen and Oost Vlaanderen (West Flanders and East Flanders) roll east from the North Sea coast, stretching out towards Brussels and Antwerp. With the exception of the range of low hills around Oudenaarde and the sea dunes along the coast, Flanders is well-nigh pancake-flat, a wide-skied landscape seen at its best in its quieter recesses, where poplar trees and whitewashed farmhouses decorate sluggish canals. There are also many reminders of Flanders’ medieval greatness, beginning with the ancient and fascinating cloth cities of Bruges and Ghent, both of which hold marvellous collections of early Flemish art.

Less familiar is the region’s clutch of intriguing smaller towns, most memorably Oudenaarde, which has a delightful town hall and is famed for its tapestries; Kortrijk, with its classic small-town charms; and Veurne, whose main square is framed by a beguiling medley of fine old buildings. There is also, of course, the legacy of World War I. By 1915, the trenches extended from the North Sea coast to Switzerland, cutting across West Flanders via Diksmuide and Ieper, and many of the key engagements of the war were fought here. Every year hundreds of visitors head for Ieper (formerly Ypres) to see the numerous cemeteries and monuments in and around the town – poignant reminders of what proved to be a desperately pointless conflict. Not far from the battlefields, the Belgian coast is beach territory, an almost continuous stretch of golden sand that is crowded with tourists every summer. An excellent tram service connects all the major seaside resorts, and although a lot of the development has been crass, cosy De Haan has kept much of its late nineteenth-century charm. The largest town on the coast is Ostend, a lively seaside resort sprinkled with popular bars and restaurants, the pick of which sell a wonderful range of seafood.

ostend beach

Highlights

1 Bruges By any measure, Bruges is one of western Europe’s most beautiful cities, its jangle of ancient houses overlooking a cobweb of picturesque canals.

2 Ostend beach The Belgian coast boasts a first-rate sandy beach and Ostend has an especially fine slice.

3 Ieper Flanders witnessed some of the worst battles of World War I, and Ieper is dotted with the sad and mournful reminders.

4 Flemish tapestries Small-town Oudenaarde was once famous for its tapestries, and a superb selection is on display here today.

5 Ghent’s Adoration of the Mystic Lamb This wonderful Jan van Eyck painting is absolutely unmissable.

Brief history

As early as the thirteenth century, Flanders was one of the most prosperous parts of Europe, with an advanced, integrated economy dependent on the cloth trade with England. The boom times lasted a couple of centuries, but by the sixteenth century, with trade slipping north towards the Netherlands and England’s cloth manufacturers beginning to undermine Flanders’ economic base, the region was in decline. The speed of the collapse was accelerated by religious wars, for though the great Flemish towns were by inclination Protestant, their counts, kings and queens were Catholic. Flanders sank into poverty and decay, a static, priest-ridden and traditional society where nearly every aspect of life was controlled by decree, and only three percent of the population could read or write.

With precious little say in the matter, the Flemish peasantry of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw their lands crossed and re-crossed by the armies of the Great Powers, for it was here that the relative fortunes of dynasties and nations were decided. Only with Belgian independence did the situation begin to change: the towns started to industrialize, tariffs protected the cloth industry, Zeebrugge was built and Ostend was modernized, all in a flurry of activity that shook Flanders from its centuries-old torpor. This steady progress was severely interrupted by the German occupations of both world wars, but Flanders has emerged prosperous, its citizens maintaining a distinctive cultural and linguistic identity, often in sharp opposition to their Walloon (French-speaking) neighbours.

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Bruges

Passing through BRUGES in 1820, William Wordsworth declared that this was where he discovered “a deeper peace than in deserts found”. Perhaps inevitably, crowds tend to overwhelm the place today – its reputation as a perfectly preserved medieval city has made it the most popular tourist destination in Belgium – but you’d be mad to come to Flanders and miss it: the museums of Bruges hold some of the country’s finest collections of Flemish art, and its intimate, winding streets, woven around a skein of narrow canals and lined with gorgeous ancient buildings, live up to even the most inflated hype.

Wordsworth was neither the first nor the last Victorian to fall in love with Bruges; by the 1840s there was a substantial British colony here, its members enraptured by the city’s medieval architecture and air of lost splendour. Neither were the expatriates slow to exercise their economic muscle, applying an architectural Gothic Revival brush to parts of the city that weren’t “medieval” enough. Time and again, they intervened in municipal planning decisions, allying themselves to like-minded Flemings in a movement that changed, or at least modified, the face of the city. Thus, Bruges is not the perfectly preserved medieval city of much tourist literature, but rather a clever, frequently seamless combination of medieval original and nineteenth- and sometimes twentieth-century additions.

The obvious place to start an exploration of the city is the two principal squares: the Markt, overlooked by the mighty belfry, and the Burg, flanked by the city’s most impressive architectural ensemble. Almost within shouting distance are the three main museums, the pick of them being the Groeninge, which offers a wonderful sample of early Flemish art. Another short hop brings you to St-Janshospitaal and the important paintings of the fifteenth-century artist Hans Memling, as well as Bruges’ most impressive churches, the Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk and St-Salvatorskathedraal. Further afield, the gentle canals and maze-like cobbled streets of eastern Bruges – stretching out from Jan van Eyckplein – are extraordinarily pretty. Here, as elsewhere in the centre, the most characteristic architectural feature is the crow-step gable, popular from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century and revived by the restorers of the 1880s, but there are also expansive Georgian-style mansions and humble, homely cottages. Time and again the eye is surprised by the subtle variety of the cityscape, featuring everything from intimate arched doorways and bendy tiled roofs to wonky chimneys and a bevy of discreet shrines and miniature statues.

Brief history

Bruges started out as a ninth-century fortress built by the warlike first count of Flanders, Baldwin Iron Arm, who was intent on defending the Flemish coast from Viking attack. The settlement prospered, and by the fourteenth century it shared effective control of the cloth trade with its two great rivals, Ghent and Ypres (now Ieper), turning high-quality English wool into clothing that was exported all over the known world. An immensely profitable business, it made the city a focus of international trade, and at its peak the town was a key member of – and showcase for the products of – the Hanseatic League, the most powerful economic alliance in medieval Europe. Through the harbours and docks of Bruges, Flemish cloth and Hansa goods were exchanged for hogs from Denmark, spices from Venice, hides from Ireland, wax from Russia, gold and silver from Poland and furs from Bulgaria. The business of these foreign traders was protected by no fewer than 21 consulates, and the city developed a wide range of support services, including banking, money-changing and maritime insurance.

Trouble and strife

Despite (or because of) this lucrative state of affairs, Bruges was dogged by war. Its weavers and merchants were dependent on the goodwill of the kings of England for the proper functioning of the wool trade, but their feudal overlords, the counts of Flanders, and their successors, the dukes of Burgundy (from 1384), were vassals of the rival king of France. Although some of the dukes and counts were strong enough to defy their king, most felt obliged to obey his orders and thus take his side against the English when the two countries were at war. This conflict of interests was compounded by the designs the French monarchy had on the independence of Bruges itself. Time and again, the French sought to assert control over the cities of West Flanders, but more often than not they encountered armed rebellion. In Bruges, Philip the Fair precipitated the most famous insurrection at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Philip and his wife, Joanna of Navarre, had held a grand reception in Bruges, but it had only served to feed their envy. In the face of the city’s splendour, Joanna moaned, “I thought that I alone was Queen, but here in this place I have six hundred rivals.” The opportunity to flex royal muscles came shortly afterwards when the city’s guildsmen flatly refused to pay a new round of taxes. Enraged, Philip dispatched an army to restore order and garrison the town, but at dawn on Friday May 18, 1302, a rebellious force of Flemings crept into the city and massacred Philip’s sleepy army – an occasion later known as the Bruges Matins: anyone who couldn’t correctly pronounce the Flemish shibboleth schild en vriend (“shield and friend”) was put to the sword. There is a statue celebrating the leaders of the insurrection – Jan Breydel and Pieter de Coninck – in the Markt.

Decline and revival

The Habsburgs, who inherited Flanders – as well as the rest of present-day Belgium and the Netherlands, in 1482 – chipped away at the power of the Flemish cities, no one more so than Emperor Charles V. As part of his policy, Charles favoured Antwerp at the expense of Flanders and, to make matters worse, the Flemish cloth industry began its long decline in the 1480s. Bruges was especially badly hit and, as a sign of its decline, failed to dredge the silted-up River Zwin, the town’s trading lifeline to the North Sea. By the 1510s, the stretch of water between Sluis and Damme was only navigable by smaller ships, and by the 1530s the city’s sea trade had collapsed completely. Bruges simply withered away, its houses deserted, its canals empty and its money spirited north with the merchants. Some four centuries later, Georges Rodenbach’s novel Bruges-la-Morte alerted well-heeled Europeans to the town’s aged, quiet charms, and Bruges – frozen in time – escaped damage in both world wars to emerge as the perfect tourist destination.

The Markt

At the heart of Bruges is the Markt, an airy open space edged on three sides by rows of gabled buildings and with horse-drawn buggies clattering over the cobbles. The burghers of nineteenth-century Bruges were keen to put something suitably civic in the middle of the square and the result was the conspicuous monument to the leaders of the Bruges Matins: Pieter de Coninck, of the guild of weavers, and Jan Breydel, dean of the guild of butchers. Standing close together, they clutch the hilt of the same sword, their faces turned to the south in slightly absurd poses of heroic determination.

The biscuit-tin buildings flanking much of the Markt form a charming architectural ensemble, their mellow ruddy-brown brick shaped into a long series of crow-step gables, each slightly different from its neighbour. Most are late nineteenth- or even early twentieth-century re-creations – or re-inventions – of older buildings, though the old provincial courthouse hogging the east side of the square breaks aesthetic ranks, its thunderous neo-Gothic facade of 1878 announced by a brace of stone lions.

Belfort

Markt • Daily 9.30am–6pm, last admission 5pm • €10 • 050 44 87 43, visitbruges.be • Entry via the Hallen

Filling out the south side of the Markt, the mighty Belfort was long a potent symbol of civic pride and municipal independence, its distinctive octagonal lantern visible far and wide across the surrounding polders. The Belfort was begun in the thirteenth century, when the town was at its richest and most extravagant, but it has had a blighted history. The original wooden version was struck by lightning and burned to the ground in 1280. Its brick replacement received its octagonal stone lantern and a second wooden spire in the 1480s, but the new spire was lost to a thunderstorm a few years later. Undeterred, the Flemings promptly added a third spire, though when this went up in smoke in 1741 the locals gave up, settling for the present structure, with the addition of a stone parapet in 1822. Few would say the Belfort is good-looking – it’s large and really rather clumsy – but it does have a certain ungainly charm, though this was lost on G.K. Chesterton, who described it as “an unnaturally long-necked animal, like a giraffe”.

The belfry staircase begins innocuously enough, but it gets steeper and much narrower as it nears the top. On the way up, it passes several mildly interesting chambers, beginning with the Treasury Room, where the town charters and money chest were locked for safe keeping. Here also is an iron trumpet with which a watchman could warn the town of a fire outbreak – though given the size of the instrument, it’s hard to believe this was very effective. Further up is the Carillon Chamber, where you can observe the slow turning of the large spiked drum that controls the 47 bells of the municipal carillon. The city still employs a full-time bell-ringer – you’re likely to see him fiddling around in the Carillon Chamber – who puts on regular carillon concerts (Wed, Sat & Sun at 11am; plus mid-June to mid-Sept Mon & Wed at 9pm). A few stairs up from here and you emerge onto the roof, which offers fabulous views, especially in the late afternoon when the warm colours of the city are at their deepest.

Hallen

Markt • Open access • Free

Now used for temporary exhibitions, the Hallen at the foot of the belfry is another much-restored thirteenth-century edifice, its style and structure modelled on the Lakenhalle in Ieper. In the middle, overlooked by a long line of galleries, is a rectangular courtyard, which originally served as the city’s principal market, its cobblestones once crammed with merchants and their wares. On the north side of the courtyard, up a flight of steps, is the entrance to the belfry.

The Burg

From the east side of the Markt, Breidelstraat leads through to the city’s other main square, the Burg, named after the fortress built here by the first count of Flanders, Baldwin Iron Arm, in the ninth century. The fortress disappeared centuries ago, but the Burg long remained the centre of political and ecclesiastical power with the Stadhuis (which has survived) on one side and St-Donaaskathedraal (which hasn’t) on the other. The French army destroyed the cathedral in 1799 and, although the foundations were laid bare in the 1950s, they were promptly re-interred – they lie in front of and underneath the Crowne Plaza Hotel.

Heilig Bloed Basiliek

Burg • April–Oct daily 9.30am–12.30pm & 2–5.30pm; Nov–March Mon, Tues & Thurs–Sun 9.30am–12.30pm & 2–5.30pm, Wed 9.30am–12.30pm • Basilica free; Treasury €2.50 • 050 33 67 92, holyblood.com

The southern half of the Burg is overseen by the city’s finest group of buildings, beginning on the right with the Heilig Bloed Basiliek (Basilica of the Holy Blood), named after the holy relic that found its way here in the Middle Ages. The church divides into two parts. Tucked away in the corner, the lower chapel is a shadowy, crypt-like affair, originally built at the beginning of the twelfth century to shelter another relic, that of St Basil, one of the great figures of the early Greek Church. The chapel’s heavy and simple Romanesque lines are decorated with just one relief, carved above an interior doorway and showing the baptism of Basil in which a strange giant bird, representing the Holy Spirit, plunges into a pool of water.

Next door, approached up a wide, low-vaulted, curving staircase, the upper chapel was built a few years later, but has been renovated so frequently that it’s impossible to make out the original structure – and the nineteenth-century decoration is gaudy-kitsch. That said, the upper chapel does house a magnificent silver tabernacle gifted to Bruges in 1611 by Albert and Isabella of Spain to hold the rock-crystal phial of the Holy Blood. One of the holiest relics in medieval Europe, the phial purports to contain a few drops of blood and water washed from the body of Christ by Joseph of Arimathea. Local legend asserts that it was the gift of Diederik d’Alsace, a Flemish count who distinguished himself by his bravery during the Second Crusade and was given the phial by a grateful patriarch of Jerusalem in 1150. It is, however, rather more likely that the relic was acquired during the sacking of Constantinople in 1204, when the Crusaders simply ignored their collective job description and robbed and slaughtered the Byzantines instead – hence the historical invention. Whatever the truth, after several weeks in Bruges, the relic was found to be dry, but thereafter it proceeded to liquefy every Friday at 6pm until 1325, a miracle attested to by all sorts of church dignitaries, including Pope Clement V.

The phial of the Holy Blood is still venerated and, despite modern scepticism, reverence for it remains strong. It’s sometimes available for visitors to touch under the supervision of a priest inside the chapel, and on Ascension Day (mid-May) it’s carried through the town centre in a colourful but solemn procession, the Heilig-Bloedprocessie, a popular event for which grandstand tickets are sold at the main tourist information office.

The treasury

The shrine that holds the phial of the Holy Blood during the Heilig-Bloedprocessie is displayed in the tiny Schatkamer (treasury), next to the upper chapel. Dating to 1617, it’s a superb piece of work, the gold and silver superstructure encrusted with jewels and decorated with tiny religious figures. The treasury also contains an incidental collection of ecclesiastical bric-a-brac plus a handful of old paintings. Look out also for the faded strands of a locally woven seventeenth-century tapestry depicting St Augustine’s funeral, the sea of helmeted heads, torches and pikes that surround the monks and abbots very much a Catholic view of a muscular State supporting a holy Church.

Stadhuis

Burg • Daily 9.30am–5pm • €4 including the Renaissancezaal • 050 44 87 43, visitbruges.be

Just to the left of the basilica, the Stadhuis has a beautiful fourteenth-century sandstone facade, though its Art Deco-ish statues, mostly of the counts and countesses of Flanders, are modern replacements for those destroyed by the occupying French army in 1792. Inside, a flight of stairs climbs up to the magnificent Gothic Hall, dating from 1400 and the setting for the first meeting of the States General (parliamentary assembly) in 1464. The ceiling – dripping pendant arches like decorated stalactites – has been restored in a vibrant mixture of maroon, dark brown, black and gold. The ribs of the arches converge in twelve circular vault-keys, picturing scenes from the New Testament. These are hard to see without binoculars, but down below – and much easier to view – are the sixteen gilded corbels that support them, representing the months and the four elements. The frescoes around the walls were commissioned in 1895 to illustrate the history of the town – or rather history as the council wanted to recall it. The largest scene, commemorating the victory over the French at the Battle of the Golden Spurs in 1302, has lots of noble knights hurrahing, though it’s hard to take this seriously when you look at the dogs, one of which clearly has a mismatch between its body and head.

Renaissancezaal ’t Brugse Vrije

Burg • Daily 9.30am–12.30pm & 1.30–5pm • €4 including Stadhuis • 050 44 87 43, visitbruges.be

Next door but one to the Stadhuis, pop into the Landhuis van het Brugse Vrije (Mansion of the Liberty of Bruges), a comparatively demure building, where just one room has survived from the original fifteenth-century structure. This, the Schepenkamer (Aldermen’s Room), now known as the Renaissancezaal ’t Brugse Vrije (Renaissance Hall of the Liberty of Bruges), is dominated by an enormous marble and oak chimneypiece, a superb example of Renaissance carving completed in 1531 to celebrate the defeat of the French at Pavia six years earlier and the advantageous Treaty of Cambrai that followed. A paean of praise to the Habsburgs, the work features the Emperor Charles V and his Austrian and Spanish relatives, though it’s the trio of bulbous codpieces that really catches the eye. The alabaster frieze running below the carvings was a caution for the Liberty’s magistrates, who held their courts here. In four panels, it relates the then-familiar biblical story of Susanna, in which – in the first panel – two old men surprise her bathing in her garden and threaten to accuse her of adultery if she resists their advances. Susanna does just that, and the second panel shows her in court. In the third panel, Susanna is about to be put to death, Daniel, interrogates the two men and uncovers their perjury. Susanna is acquitted and, in the final scene, the two men are stoned to death.

The Vismarkt and around

From the arch beside the Stadhuis, Blinde Ezelstraat (Blind Donkey Street) leads south across one of the city’s canals to the sombre eighteenth-century Doric colonnades of the Vismarkt (fish market), which is still in use by a handful of traders today. The fish sellers have done rather better than the tanners and dyers who used to work in neighbouring Huidenvettersplein. Both disappeared long ago and nowadays tourists converge on this picturesque square in their droves, holing up in its bars and restaurants and snapping away at the postcard-perfect views of the belfry from the adjacent Rozenhoedkaai. From here, it’s footsteps to the Dijver, which tracks along the canal passing the path to the first of the city’s main museums, the Groeninge.

Groeninge Museum

Dijver 12 • Tues–Sun 9.30am–5pm • €8 including the Arentshuis • 050 44 87 43, visitbruges.be

The Groeninge Museum possesses one of the world’s finest samples of early Flemish paintings, from Jan van Eyck through to Jan Provoost. The description below details some of the most important works: most if not all should be on display, though note that the collection is regularly rotated. Be sure to pick up a floor plan at reception.

Jan van Eyck

Arguably the greatest of the early Flemish masters, Jan van Eyck (1385–1441) lived and worked in Bruges from 1430 until his death eleven years later. He was a key figure in the development of oil painting, modulating its tones to create paintings of extraordinary clarity and realism. The Groeninge has two gorgeous examples of his work, beginning with the miniature portrait of his wife, Margareta van Eyck, painted in 1439 and bearing his motto, “als ich can” (the best I can do). The painting is very much a private picture and one that had no commercial value, marking a step away from the sponsored art – and religious preoccupations – of previous Flemish artists. The second van Eyck painting is the remarkable Madonna and Child with Canon George van der Paele, a glowing and richly symbolic work with three figures surrounding the Madonna and Child: the kneeling canon, St George (his patron saint) and St Donatian. St George doffs his helmet to salute the infant Christ and speaks by means of the Hebrew word “Adonai” (Lord) inscribed on his armour’s chin-strap, while Jesus replies through the green parrot he holds: folklore asserted that this type of parrot was fond of saying “ave”, the Latin for “welcome” or “hail”. The canon’s face is exquisitely executed, down to the sagging jowls and the bulging blood vessels at his temple, while the glasses and book in his hand add to his air of deep contemplation. Audaciously, van Eyck has broken with tradition by painting the canon among the saints rather than as a lesser figure – a distinct nod to the humanism that was gathering pace in contemporary Bruges.

Rogier van der Weyden

The Groeninge possesses two fine and roughly contemporaneous copies of paintings by Rogier van der Weyden (1399–1464), one-time official city painter to Brussels. The first is a tiny Portrait of Philip the Good, in which the pallor of the duke’s aquiline features, along with the brightness of his hatpin and chain of office, is skilfully balanced by the sombre cloak and hat. The second and much larger painting, St Luke painting the Portrait of Our Lady, is a rendering of a popular if highly improbable legend that Luke painted Mary – thereby becoming the patron saint of painters. The painting is notable for the detail of its Flemish background and the cheeky-chappie smile of the baby Christ.

Hugo van der Goes

One of the most gifted of the early Flemish artists, Hugo van der Goes (d.1482) is a shadowy figure, though it is known that he became master of the painters’ guild in Ghent in 1467. Eight years later, he entered a Ghent priory as a lay brother, perhaps on account of the prolonged bouts of depression that afflicted him. Few of his paintings have survived, but these exhibit a superb compositional balance and a keen observational eye – as in his last work, the luminescent Death of Our Lady. Sticking to religious legend, the Apostles have been miraculously transported to Mary’s deathbed, where, in a state of agitation, they surround the prostrate woman. Mary is dressed in blue, but there are no signs of luxury, reflecting both van der Goes’s asceticism and his polemic – the artist may well have been appalled by the church’s love of glitter and gold.

Hans Memling

Hans Memling (1430–94) is represented by a pair of Annunciation panels from a triptych – gentle, romantic representations of an angel and Mary in contrasting shades of grey. Here also is Memling’s Moreel Triptych, in which the formality of the design is offset by the warm colours and the gentleness of the detail – St Giles strokes the fawn and the knight’s hand lies on the donor’s shoulder. The central panel depicts three saints – two monkish figures to either side of St Christopher, who carries the infant Jesus – and the side panels show the donors and their sixteen children. There are more Memling paintings in Bruges at the St-Janshospitaal.

Gerard David

Born near Gouda in the Netherlands, Gerard David (c.1460–1523) moved to Bruges in his early twenties. Soon admitted to the local painters’ guild, he quickly rose through the ranks, becoming the city’s leading artistic light after the death of Memling. Official commissions rained in on David, mostly for religious paintings, which he approached in a formal manner but with a fine eye for detail. The Groeninge holds two fine examples of his work, starting with the Baptism of Christ Triptych, in which a boyish, lightly bearded Christ is depicted as part of the Holy Trinity in the central panel. There’s also one of David’s few secular ventures, the intriguing Judgement of Cambyses, painted on two large oak panels. Based on a Persian legend related by Herodotus, the first panel’s background shows the corrupt judge Sisamnes accepting a bribe, with his subsequent arrest by grim-faced aldermen filling the rest of the panel. The aldermen crowd in on Sisamnes with a palpable sense of menace and, as the king sentences him to be flayed alive, a sweaty look of fear sweeps over the judge’s face. In the gruesome second panel the king’s servants carry out the judgement, applying themselves to the task with clinical detachment. Behind, in the top right corner, the fable is completed with the judge’s son dispensing justice from his father’s old chair, which is now draped with Sisamnes’s flayed skin. Completed in 1498, the painting was hung in the council chamber by the city burghers to encourage honesty among its magistrates.

Hieronymus Bosch

The Groeninge also holds a Last Judgement by Hieronymus Bosch’s (1450–1516), a trio of oak panels crammed with mysterious beasts, microscopic mutants and scenes of awful cruelty – men boiled in a pit or cut in half by a giant knife. It looks like unbridled fantasy, but in fact the scenes were read as symbols, a sort of strip cartoon of legend, proverb and tradition. Indeed, Bosch’s religious orthodoxy is confirmed by the appeal his work had for that most Catholic of Spanish kings, Philip II.

Jan Provoost

There’s more grim symbolism in Jan Provoost’s (1465–1529) striking The Miser and Death, which portrays the merchant with his money in one panel, trying desperately to pass a promissory note to the grinning skeleton in the next. Provoost’s career was typical of many of the Flemish artists of the early sixteenth century. Initially he worked in the Flemish manner, his style greatly influenced by Gerard David, but from about 1521 his work was reinvigorated by contact with the German painter and engraver Albrecht Dürer, who had himself been inspired by the artists of the early Italian Renaissance. Provoost moved around too, working in Valenciennes and Antwerp, before settling in Bruges in 1494.

Pieter Pourbus

The Groeninge’s collection of late sixteenth- and seventeenth-century paintings isn’t especially strong, but there’s enough to discern the period’s watering down of religious themes in favour of more secular preoccupations. Pieter Pourbus (1523–84) is well represented by a series of austere and often surprisingly unflattering portraits of the movers and shakers of his day. There’s also his Last Judgement, a much larger but atypical work, crammed with muscular men and fleshy women; completed in 1551, its inspiration came from Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel. Born in Gouda, Pourbus moved to Bruges in his early twenties, becoming the leading local portraitist of his day as well as squeezing in work as a civil engineer and cartographer.

The Symbolists

There is a small but significant collection of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Belgian art at the Groeninge. One obvious highlight is the work of the Symbolist Fernand Khnopff (1858–1921), who is represented by Secret Reflections, not perhaps one of his better paintings, but interesting in so far as its lower panel – showing St Janshospitaal reflected in a canal – confirms one of the movement’s favourite conceits: “Bruges the dead city”. This was inspired by Georges Rodenbach’s novel Bruges-la-Morte, a highly stylized muse on love and obsession first published in 1892. The book boosted the craze for visiting Bruges, the so-called “dead city” where the novel’s action unfolds. The upper panel of Khnopff’s painting is a play on appearance and desire, but it’s pretty feeble, unlike his later attempts, in which he painted his sister, Marguerite, again and again, using her refined, almost plastic beauty to stir a vague sense of passion – for him she was desirable and unobtainable in equal measure.

The Expressionists

The museum has a healthy sample of the work of the talented Constant Permeke (1886–1952). Wounded in World War I, Permeke’s grim wartime experiences helped him develop a distinctive Expressionist style in which his subjects – usually agricultural workers, fishermen and so forth – were monumental in form, but invested with sombre, sometimes threatening, emotion. His charcoal drawing the Angelus is a typically dark and earthy representation of Belgian peasant life dated to 1934. In a similar vein is the enormous Last Supper by Gustave van de Woestijne (1881–1947), another excellent example of Belgian Expressionism, with Jesus and the disciples, all elliptical eyes and restrained movement, trapped within prison-like walls.

The Surrealists

The Groeninge owns a clutch of works by the inventive Marcel Broodthaers (1924–76), most notably his tongue-in-cheek (and very Belgian) Les Animaux de la Ferme. René Magritte (1898–1967;) appears too, in his characteristically unnerving The Assault, while Paul Delvaux (1897–1994) features in the spookily stark Surrealism of his Serenity. Delvaux has a museum all to himself in St-Idesbald.

Arentshuis

Dijver 16 • Tues–Sun 9.30am–5pm • €4 • 050 44 87 43, visitbruges.be

The Arentshuis occupies an attractive eighteenth-century mansion with a stately portico-framed entrance. Now a museum, the interior is divided into two separate sections: the ground floor is given over to temporary exhibitions, usually of fine art, while the Brangwyn Museum upstairs displays the moody sketches, etchings, lithographs, studies and paintings of the much-travelled artist Sir Frank Brangwyn (1867–1956). Born in Bruges of Welsh parents, Brangwyn flitted between Britain and Belgium, donating this sample of his work to his native town in 1936. Apprenticed to William Morris in the early 1880s and an official UK war artist in World War I, Brangwyn was nothing if not versatile, turning his hand to several different media, though his forceful drawings and sketches are much more appealing than his paintings, which often slide into sentimentality.

Arentspark

The Arentshuis stands in the north corner of the pocket-sized Arentspark, whose pair of forlorn stone columns are all that remains of the Waterhalle, a large trading hall which once straddled the most central of the city’s canals but was demolished in 1787 after the canal was covered over. Also in the Arentspark is the tiniest of humpbacked bridges – St Bonifaciusbrug – whose stonework is framed against a tumble of antique brick houses. One of Bruges’ most picturesque (and photographed) spots, the bridge looks like the epitome of everything medieval, but in fact it was built in 1910.

Gruuthuse Museum

Dijver 17 • Closed for refurbishment until 2019 • 050 44 87 43, visitbruges.be

The Gruuthuse Museum is located inside a rambling mansion that dates from the fifteenth century. The building is a fine example of civil Gothic architecture and it takes its name from the house owners’ historical right to tax the gruit, the dried herb and flower mixture once added to barley during the beer-brewing process to improve the flavour. The last lord of the Gruuthuse died in 1492 and, after many twists and turns, the mansion was turned into a museum to hold a hotchpotch of Flemish fine, applied and decorative arts, mostly from the medieval and early modern periods. The museum’s most famous artefact is a polychromatic terracotta bust of a youthful Emperor Charles V and its most unusual feature is the oak-panelled oratory that juts out from the first floor to overlook the altar of the Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk next door. A curiously intimate room, the oratory allowed the lords of the gruit to worship without leaving home – a real social coup.

Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk

Mariastraat • Mon–Sat 9.30am–5pm, Sun 1.30–5pm • Free, but chancel €6 • 050 44 87 43, visitbruges.be

The Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk (Church of Our Lady) is a rambling shambles of a building, a clamour of different dates and styles whose brick spire is – at 115.50m – the highest brick tower in Belgium. Entered from the south, the nave was three hundred years in the making, an architecturally discordant affair, whose thirteenth-century grey-stone central aisle is the oldest part of the church. The central aisle blends in with the south aisle but the later, fourteenth-century north aisle doesn’t mesh at all – even the columns aren’t aligned. This was the result of changing fashions, not slapdash work: the High Gothic north aisle was intended to be the start of a complete remodelling of the church, but the money ran out before the project was finished. In the south aisle is the church’s most acclaimed objet d’art, a delicate marble Madonna and Child by Michelangelo. Purchased by a Bruges merchant, this was the only one of Michelangelo’s works to leave Italy during the artist’s lifetime and it had a significant influence on the painters then working in Bruges, though its present setting – beneath gloomy stone walls and set within a gaudy Baroque altar – is hardly prepossessing.

The chancel

Michelangelo apart, the most interesting part of the church is the chancel, beyond the heavy-duty black and white marble rood screen. Here you’ll find the mausoleums of Charles the Bold and his daughter Mary of Burgundy, two exquisite examples of Renaissance artistry, their side panels decorated with coats of arms connected by the most intricate of floral designs. The royal figures are enhanced in the detail, from the helmet and gauntlets placed gracefully by Charles’ side to the pair of watchful dogs nestled at Mary’s feet. Oddly enough, the hole dug by archeologists beneath the mausoleums during the 1970s to discover who was actually buried here was never filled in, so you can see the burial vaults of several unknown medieval dignitaries, three of which have now been moved across to the Lanchals Chapel.

Lanchals Chapel

Just across the ambulatory from the mausoleums is the Lanchals Chapel, which holds the imposing Baroque gravestone of Pieter Lanchals, a one-time Habsburg official who had his head lopped off by the citizens of Bruges for corruption in 1488. In front of the Lanchals gravestone are the three relocated medieval burial vaults moved across from beneath the mausoleums, each plastered with lime mortar. The inside walls of the vaults sport brightly coloured grave frescoes, a type of art which flourished hereabouts from the late thirteenth to the middle of the fifteenth century. The iconography is fairly consistent, with the long sides mostly bearing one, sometimes two, angels apiece, and most of the angels are shown swinging thuribles (the vessels in which incense is burnt during religious ceremonies). Typically, the short sides show the Crucifixion and a Virgin and Child. The background decoration is more varied, with crosses, stars and dots all making appearances as well as two main sorts of flower – roses and bluebells. The frescoes were painted freehand and executed at great speed – Flemings were then buried on the day they died – hence the delightful immediacy of the work.

The earthly remains of Charles the Bold and Mary of Burgundy

The last independent rulers of Flanders were Charles the Bold, the Duke of Burgundy, and his daughter Mary of Burgundy, both of whom died in unfortunate circumstances: Charles during the siege of the French city of Nancy in 1477; Mary after a riding accident in 1482. Mary was married to Maximilian, a Habsburg prince and future Holy Roman Emperor, who inherited her territories on her death – thus, at a dynastic stroke, Flanders was incorporated into the Habsburg empire with all the dreadful consequences that would entail.

In the sixteenth century, the Habsburgs relocated to Spain, but they were keen to emphasize their connections with, and historical authority over, Flanders. Nothing did this quite as well as the ceremonial burial – or reburial – of bits of royal body. Mary was safely ensconced in Bruges’s Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk, but the body of Charles was in a makeshift grave in Nancy. The Emperor Charles V, the great grandson of Charles the Bold, had this body exhumed and carried to Bruges, where it was reinterred next to Mary. Or at least he thought he had: there were persistent rumours that the French – the traditional enemies of the Habsburgs – had deliberately handed over a dud skeleton. In the 1970s, archeologists had a bash at solving the mystery by digging beneath Charles and Mary’s mausoleums in the Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk. But among the assorted tombs, they failed to authoritatively identify either the body or even the tomb of Charles. Things ran more smoothly in Mary’s case, however, with her skeleton confirming the known details of her hunting accident. Moreover, buried alongside her was the urn which contained the heart of her son, Philip the Fair, placed here in 1506. More archeological harrumphing over the remains of poor old Charles is likely at some point or another.

St-Janshospitaalmuseum

Mariastraat 38 • Apotheek (Apothecary) Tues–Sun 9.30am–12.30pm & 1.30–5pm; St-Janshospitaalmuseum Tues–Sun 9.30am–5pm • €8 • 050 44 87 43, visitbruges.be

Opposite the entrance to the Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk is St-Janshospitaal, a sprawling complex that sheltered the sick of mind and body until well into the nineteenth century. The oldest part – at the front on Mariastraat, behind two church-like gable ends – has been turned into the excellent St-Janshospitaalmuseum, while the nineteenth-century annexe, reached along a narrow passageway on the north side of the museum, has been converted into a really rather mundane events and exhibition centre called – rather confusingly – Oud St-Jan. As you stroll down the passageway, you pass the old Apotheek, where one room holds dozens of ex-votos, the other an ancient dispensing counter flanked by dozens of vintage apothecary’s jars.

St-Janshospitaalmuseum occupies the old, stone-arched hospital ward and the adjoining chapel. The first part of the museum explores the historical background to the hospital through documents, paintings and religious objets d’art. Highlights include an enlarged photo of the hospital’s nuns in their full and fancy habits as of 1858 and a pair of sedan chairs used to carry the infirm to the hospital in emergencies. There’s also Jan Beerblock’s The Wards of St Janshospitaal, a minutely detailed painting of the hospital ward as it was in the late eighteenth century, the patients tucked away in row upon row of tiny, cupboard-like beds. Other noteworthy paintings include an exquisite Deposition of Christ, a late fifteenth-century version of an original by Rogier van der Weyden, and a stylish, intimately observed diptych by Jan Provoost that includes images of Christ, the donor (a friar) and a skull.

The Memling collection

The museum also holds six wonderful works by Hans Memling (1433–94). Born near Frankfurt, Memling spent most of his working life in Bruges, where Rogier van der Weyden instructed him. He adopted much of his tutor’s style and stuck to the detailed symbolism of his contemporaries, but his painterly manner was distinctly restrained and often pious and grave. Graceful and warmly coloured, his figures also had a velvet-like quality that greatly appealed to the city’s burghers, whose enthusiasm made Memling a rich man – in 1480 he was listed among the town’s major moneylenders.

Reliquary of St Ursula and two Memling triptychs

Of the Memling works on display in the old hospital ward, the most unusual is the reliquary of St Ursula, comprising a miniature wooden Gothic church painted with the story of St Ursula. Memling condensed the legend into six panels with Ursula and her ten companions landing at Cologne and Basle before reaching Rome at the end of their pilgrimage. Things go badly wrong on the way back: they leave Basle in good order, but are then – in the last two panels – massacred by Huns as they pass through Germany. Memling had a religious point to make, but today it’s the mass of incidental detail that makes the reliquary so enchanting, providing an intriguing evocation of the late medieval world. Close by are two triptychs, a Lamentation and an Adoration of the Magi, in which there’s a gentle nervousness in the approach of the Magi, here shown as the kings of Spain, Arabia and Ethiopia.

Triptych of St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist

In the museum’s former chapel is the delightful Mystical Marriage of St Catherine, the middle panel of a large triptych in which St Catherine, who represents contemplation, is shown receiving a ring from the baby Jesus to seal their spiritual union. The complementary side panels depict the beheading of St John the Baptist and a visionary St John the Evangelist writing the Book of Revelation on the bare and rocky island of Patmos. Again, it’s the detail that impresses: between the inner and outer rainbows above the Evangelist, for instance, the prophets play music on tiny instruments – look closely and you’ll spy a lute, a flute, a harp and a hurdy-gurdy.

Virgin and Martin van Nieuwenhove

In a side chapel adjoining the main chapel is the Virgin and Martin van Nieuwenhove diptych, which depicts the eponymous merchant in the full flush of youth and with a hint of arrogance: his lips pout, his hair cascades down to his shoulders and he is dressed in the most fashionable of doublets – by the middle of the 1480s, when the portrait was commissioned, no Bruges merchant wanted to appear too pious. Opposite, the Virgin gets the full stereotypical treatment from the oval face and the almond-shaped eyes through to full cheeks, thin nose and bunched lower lip.

Portrait of a Young Woman

Also in the side chapel, Memling’s skill as a portraitist is demonstrated to exquisite effect in his Portrait of a Young Woman, where the richly dressed subject stares dreamily into the middle distance, her hands – in a superb optical illusion – seeming to clasp the picture frame. The lighting is subtle and sensuous, with the woman set against a dark background, her gauze veil dappling the side of her face. A high forehead was then considered a sign of great womanly beauty, so her hair is pulled right back and was probably plucked – as are her eyebrows. There’s no knowing who the woman was, but in the seventeenth century her fancy headgear convinced observers that she was one of the legendary sibyls who predicted Christ’s birth; so convinced were they that they added the cartouche in the top left-hand corner, describing her as Sibylla Sambetha – and the painting is often referred to by this name.

St-Salvatorskathedraal

Steenstraat • Mon–Fri 10am–1pm & 2–5.30pm, Sat 10am–1pm & 2–3.30pm, Sun 11.30am–noon & 2–5pm • 050 33 61 88, sintsalvator.be

The high and mighty St-Salvatorskathedraal (Holy Saviour Cathedral) is a bulky Gothic edifice that mostly dates from the late thirteenth century, though the ambulatory was added some two centuries later. A parish church for most of its history, it was only made a cathedral in 1834 following the destruction of St Donatian’s by the French. This change of status prompted lots of ecclesiastical rumblings – nearby Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk was bigger and its spire higher – and when part of St Salvator’s went up in smoke in 1839, the opportunity was taken to make its tower higher and grander in a romantic rendition of the Romanesque style.

The nave and porch

Slowly emerging from a seemingly interminable restoration, the cathedral’s nave remains a cheerless, cavernous affair despite lashings of new paint. The star turn is the set of eight paintings by Jan van Orley displayed in the transepts. Commissioned in the 1730s, the paintings were used for the manufacture of a matching set of tapestries from a Brussels workshop and, remarkably enough, these have survived too and hang in sequence in the choir and nave. Each of the eight scenes is a fluent, dramatic composition featuring a familiar episode from the life of Christ – from the Nativity to the Resurrection – complete with a handful of animals, including a remarkably determined Palm Sunday donkey. The tapestries are actually mirror images of the paintings as the weavers worked with the rear of the tapestries uppermost on their looms; the weavers also had sight of the tapestry paintings – or rather cartoon copies, as the originals were too valuable to be kept beside the looms. Adjoining the nave, in the floor of the porch behind the old main doors, look out also for the six recently excavated tombs, whose interior walls are decorated with grave frescoes that follow the same design as those in the Lanchals Chapel.

The treasury

Mon–Fri & Sun 2–5pm • Free

The cathedral treasury (Schatkamer) occupies the adjoining neo-Gothic chapterhouse, whose cloistered rooms are packed with ecclesiastical bits and pieces, from religious paintings and statues through to an assortment of reliquaries, vestments and croziers. The labelling is poor, however, so it’s a good idea to pick up the English-language mini-guide at the entrance. Room B holds the treasury’s finest painting, a gruesome, oak-panel triptych, The Martyrdom of St Hippolytus, by Dieric Bouts (1410–75) and Hugo van der Goes (d. 1482). The right panel depicts the Roman Emperor Decius, a notorious persecutor of Christians, trying to persuade the priest Hippolytus to abjure his faith. He fails, and in the central panel Hippolytus is pulled to pieces by four horses.

The Begijnhof

Begijnhof • Daily 6.30am–6.30pm • Free • 050 33 00 11, visitbruges.be

Bruges’ tourist throng zeroes in on the Begijnhof, just south of the centre, where a rough circle of old and infinitely pretty whitewashed houses surrounds a central green, which looks a treat in spring, when a carpet of daffodils pushes up between the wind-bent elms. There were once begijnhoven all over Belgium, and this is one of the few to have survived in good nick. They date back to the twelfth century, when a Liège priest – a certain Lambert le Bègue – encouraged widows and unmarried women to live in communities, the better to do pious acts, especially caring for the sick. These communities were different from convents in so far as the inhabitants – the Beguines (begijnen) – did not have to take conventual vows and had the right to return to the secular world if they wished. Margaret, Countess of Flanders, founded Bruges’ begijnhof in 1245, and although most of the houses now standing date from the eighteenth century, the medieval layout has survived intact, preserving the impression of the begijnhof as a self-contained village, with access controlled through two large gates. Almost all of the houses are still in private hands but, with the Beguines long gone, they’re now occupied by a mixture of single, elderly women and Benedictine nuns, whom you’ll see flitting around in their habits, mostly on their way to and from the Begijnhofkerk, a surprisingly large church with a set of gaudy altarpieces.

Begijnenhuisje

Begijnhof 24 • Mon–Sat 10am–5pm, Sun 2.30–5pm • €2

Only one house in the begijnhof is open to the public – the Begijnenhuisje, a small-scale celebration of the simple life of the Beguines comprising a couple of living rooms and a mini-cloister. The prime exhibit is the schapraai, a traditional Beguine’s cupboard, which was a frugal combination of dining table, cutlery cabinet and larder.

Minnewater

Facing the more southerly of the begijnhof ’s two gates is the Minnewater, often hyped as the city’s “Lake of Love”. The tag certainly gets the canoodlers going, but in fact the lake – more a large pond – started life as a city harbour. The distinctive stone lock house at the head of the Minnewater recalls its earlier function, though it’s actually a very fanciful nineteenth-century reconstruction of the medieval original. The Poertoren, on the west bank at the far end of the lake, is more authentic, its brown brickwork dating from 1398 and once forming part of the city wall. This is where the city kept its gunpowder – hence the name, “powder tower”. Beside the Poertoren, a footbridge spans the southern end of the Minnewater to reach the leafy expanse of Minnewaterpark - or you can keep on going along the footpath that threads its way along the old city ramparts, now pleasantly wooded.

Jan van Eyckplein and around

Jan van Eyckplein, a five-minute walk north of the Markt, is one of the prettier squares in Bruges, its cobbles backdropped by the easy sweep of the Spiegelrei canal. The centrepiece of the square is an earnest statue of Jan van Eyck, erected in 1878, while on the north side is the Tolhuis, whose fancy Renaissance entrance is decorated with the coat of arms of the dukes of Luxembourg, who long levied tolls here. The Tolhuis dates from the late fifteenth century, but was extensively remodelled in medieval style in the 1870s, as was the Poortersloge (Merchants’ Lodge; no public entry), whose slender tower pokes up above the rooftops on the west side of the square. Theoretically, any city merchant was entitled to be a member of the Poortersloge, but in fact membership was restricted to the richest and most powerful. An informal alternative to the Stadhuis, it was here that key political and economic decisions were taken – and this was also where local bigwigs could drink and gamble discreetly.

Spiegelrei canal

Running east from Jan van Eyckplein, the Spiegelrei canal was once the heart of the foreign merchants’ quarter, its frenetic quays overlooked by the trade missions of many of the city’s trading partners. The medieval buildings were demolished long ago but they have been replaced by an exquisite medley of architectural styles, from expansive Classical mansions to pirouetting crow-step gables.

Gouden Handrei and around

At the far end of Spiegelrei, a left turn brings you onto one of the city’s loveliest streets, Gouden-Handrei, which – along with its continuation, Spaanse Loskaai – was once the focus of the Spanish merchants’ quarter. The west end of Spaanse Loskaai is marked by the Augustijnenbrug, the city’s oldest surviving bridge, a sturdy three-arched structure dating from 1391. The bridge was built to help the monks of a nearby (and long demolished) Augustinian monastery get into the city centre speedily; the benches set into the parapet were cut to allow itinerant tradesmen to display their goods here.

Spanjaardstraat

Running south from Augustijnenbrug is Spanjaardstraat, another part of the old Spanish enclave. It was here, at no. 9, in a house formerly known as De Pijnappel (The Fir Cone), that the founder of the Jesuits, Ignatius Loyola (1491–1556), spent his holidays while he was a student in Paris – unfortunately the town’s liberality failed to dent Loyola’s nascent fanaticism.

The Adornesdomein

Peperstraat 3 • Mon–Sat 10am–5pm • €7 • 050 33 88 83, adornes.org

Beyond the east end of the Spiegelrei canal is an old working-class district, whose simple brick cottages surround the Adornesdomein, a substantial complex of buildings belonging to the wealthy Adornes family, who migrated here from Genoa in the thirteenth century and made a fortune from a special sort of dye fastener. A visit to the domein begins towards the rear of the complex, where a set of humble brick almshouses hold a small museum, which gives the historical low-down on the family. The most interesting figure was the much travelled Anselm Adornes (1424–83), whose roller-coaster career included high-power diplomatic missions to Scotland and being punished for alleged corruption – he was fined and paraded through Bruges dressed only in his underwear.

The Jeruzalemkerk

Anselm Adornes and several of his kinfolk made pilgrimages to the Holy Land and one result is the idiosyncratic Jeruzalemkerk (Jerusalem Church), the main feature of the domein and an approximate copy of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The church’s interior is on two levels: the lower one is dominated by a large and ghoulish altarpiece, decorated with skulls and ladders, in front of which is the black marble mausoleum of Anselm Adornes and his wife Margaretha – though the only part of Anselm held here is his heart: Anselm was murdered in Scotland, which is where he was buried, but his heart was sent back here to Bruges. There’s more grisliness at the back of the church, where a vaulted chapel holds a replica of Christ’s tomb with an imitation body – it’s down a narrow tunnel behind the iron grating. To either side of the main altar, steps ascend to the choir, which is situated right below the eccentric, onion-domed lantern tower.

Kantcentrum

Balstraat 16 • Mon–Sat 9.30am–5pm; demonstrations Mon–Sat 2–5pm • €5.20, including demonstrations • 050 33 00 72, kantcentrum.eu

The ground floor of the Kantcentrum (Lace Centre), just metres from the Adornesdomein, traces the history of the industry here in Bruges and displays a substantial sample of antique handmade lace. The earliest major piece is an exquisite, seventeenth-century Lenten veil with scenes from the life of Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, and there are also intricate collars, ruffs, fans and sample books. The most fanciful pieces – Chantilly lace especially – mostly date from the late nineteenth century. Belgian lace – or Flanders lace as it was formerly known – was renowned for the fineness of its thread and beautiful motifs and it was once worn in the courts of Brussels, Paris, Madrid and London, with Bruges the centre of its production. Handmade lace reached the peak of its popularity in the early nineteenth century, when hundreds of Bruges women and girls worked as home-based lace-makers. The industry was, however, transformed by the arrival of machine-made lace in the 1840s and, by the end of the century, handmade lace had been largely supplanted, with the lace-makers obliged to work in factories. This highly mechanized industry collapsed after World War I when lace, a symbol of an old and discredited order, suddenly had no place in the wardrobe of most women. Most lace shops in Bruges sell lace manufactured in the Far East, especially China, but upstairs at the Kantcentrum there are demonstrations of handmade lace-making. You can buy pieces here too – or stroll along the street to ’t Apostelientje.

Arrival and departure: bruges

By train & bus The train and adjacent bus station are about 2km southwest of the city centre. Local bus #12 departs for the main square, the Markt, from outside the train station every few minutes; other services stop on the Markt or in the surrounding side streets. A taxi from the train station to the Markt costs about €12.

Destinations by train Brussels (every 20min; 1hr); Ghent (every 20min; 20min); Ostend (every 20min; 15min).

Destinations by bus Damme (#43 Mon–Fri 1 or 2 daily; 30min).

By car The E40, running northwest from Brussels to Ostend, skirts Bruges. Bruges is clearly signed from the E40 and its oval-shaped centre is encircled by the R30 ring road.

Parking Parking in the centre can be a real tribulation; easily the best and most economical option is to use the 24/7 car park by the train station, particularly as the price – €3.50 per day – includes the cost of the bus ride to and from the centre.

getting around

By bus Local buses are operated by De Lijn (070 22 02 00, delijn.be). A standard one-way fare costs €3. Tickets are valid for an hour and can be purchased at automatic ticket machines and from the driver. A 24hr city transport pass, the Dagpas, costs €6 (€8 from the driver). There’s a De Lijn information kiosk outside the train station (Mon–Fri 7.30am–5.45pm, Sat 9am–5pm & Sun 10am–5pm).

By bike Flat as a pancake, Bruges and its environs are a great place to cycle, especially as there are cycle lanes on many of the roads and cycle racks dotted across the centre. There are about a dozen bike rental places in town – tourist information has the full list. The largest is Fietspunt Brugge, beside the train station (April–Sept Mon–Fri 7am–7pm, Sat & Sun 10am–9pm; Oct–March Mon–Fri 7am–7pm; 050 39 68 26). A standard-issue bike costs €15 per day (€4/hr), plus a refundable deposit of €10.

By taxi Bruges has several taxi ranks, including one on the Markt and another outside the train station. Fares are metered – and the most common journey, from the train station to the centre, costs about €12.

information

Tourist information There are three tourist information offices: a small one at the train station (daily 10am–5pm); the main one in the Concertgebouw (Concert Hall) complex, on the west side of the city centre on ’t Zand (Mon–Sat 10am–5pm, Sun 10am–2pm); and a third on the Markt (daily 10am–5pm), in the same building as the ghastly Historium where, allegedly, you can “Experience the magic of the medieval period”. They have a common phone line and website (050 44 46 46, visitbruges.be).

City passes A splurge of new (and occasionally tawdry) attractions made Bruges’s old CityCard pass increasingly hard to co-ordinate and as a consequence it was abandoned in 2016. It may or may not be revived, but in the meantime the best you’ll do is the Museum Pass, which is valid for three days, covers entry to all the main museums and costs €20 (12–25-year-olds €15)

Cycling around bruges

Beginning about 2.5km northeast of the Markt, the country lanes on either side of the Brugge-Sluis canal cut across a pretty parcel of land that extends as far as the E34/N49 motorway, about 12km further to the northeast. This rural backwater is ideal cycling country, its green fields crisscrossed by drowsy canals and causeways, each of which is shadowed by poplar trees which quiver and rustle in the prevailing westerly winds. An obvious itinerary – of about 28km – takes in the quaint village of DAMME, which was, in medieval times, Bruges’s main seaport. Thereafter, the Brugge-Sluis carries on east as far as tiny HOEKE, where, just over the bridge and on the north side of the canal, you turn hard left for the narrow causeway – the Krinkeldijk – that wanders straight back in the direction of Bruges. Just over 3km long, the Krinkeldijk drifts across a beguiling landscape of whitewashed farmhouses and deep-green grassy fields before reaching an intersection where you turn left to regain the Brugge–Sluis waterway.

The map you want is the Fietsnetwerk Brugse Ommeland (1:50,000), available from any major bookshop.

clockwise from top St-Janshospitaalmuseum ; CANAL NEAR ST BONIFACIUSBRUG ; Belfort, Bruges

Guided tours and boat trips in and around bruges

Guided tours are big business in Bruges. Tourist information has comprehensive details, but among the many options one long-standing favourite is a horse-drawn carriage ride. Carriages hold a maximum of five, and line up on the Markt (daily 10am–10pm; 30min; €50 per carriage) to offer a short canter around town; demand can outstrip supply, so expect to queue at the weekend. A second favourite is half-hour boat trips along the city’s central canals with boats departing from a number of jetties south of the Burg (March–Nov daily 10am–6pm; €8). Boats leave every few minutes, but long queues still build up during high season, with few visitors seemingly concerned by the canned commentary. In winter (Dec–Feb), there’s a spasmodic service at weekends only.

Quasimodo Tours 050 37 04 70, quasimodo.be. Bruges has a small army of tour operators but this is one of the best, running a first-rate programme of excursions both in and around Bruges and out into Flanders. Highly recommended is their “Flanders Field Battlefield” minibus tour of the World War I battlefields near Ieper. Tours cost €67 (under 26 €57), including picnic lunch, and last about eight hours. Reservations required; hotel or train station pick-up can be arranged.

Quasimundo Predikherenstraat 28 050 33 07 75, quasimundo.com. Quasimundo runs several bike tours, starting from the Burg. Their “Bruges by Bike” excursion (March–Oct 1 daily; 2.5hr; €28) zips round the main sights and then explores less-visited parts of the city, while their “Border by Bike” tour (March–Oct 1 daily; 4hr; €28) is a 25km ride out along the poplar-lined canals to the north of Bruges, visiting Damme and Oostkerke with stops and stories along the way. Both are good fun and the price includes mountain-bike and rain-jacket hire; reservations are required.

Accommodation

Bruges has over a hundred hotels, almost two hundred B&Bs and several youth hostels, but still can’t accommodate all its visitors at busy times, especially in the high season (roughly late June to early Sept) and at Christmas – so you’d be well advised to book ahead. Most of the city’s hotels are small – twenty rooms, often fewer – and few are chains. Standards are generally high among the hotels and B&Bs, whereas the city’s hostels are more inconsistent.

Hotels

Adornes St Annarei 26 050 34 13 36, adornes.be; map. Medium-sized three-star in two tastefully converted old Flemish townhouses. Both the public areas and the comfortable bedrooms are decorated in attractive pastel shades, which emphasize the antique charm of the place. The location’s great – at the junction of two canals near the east end of Spiegelrei – and the breakfasts delicious. Also very child-friendly. €135

Alegria St-Jakobsstraat 34 050 33 09 37, alegria-hotel.com; map. Formerly a B&B, this appealing, family-run three-star has a dozen or so large and well-appointed rooms, each decorated in attractive shades of brown, cream and white. The rooms at the back, overlooking the garden, are quieter than those at the front. The owner is a mine of information about where and what to eat, and the hotel is in a central location, near the Markt. €120

Cordoeanier Cordoeaniersstraat 18 050 33 90 51, cordoeanier.be; map. Medium-sized, family-run two-star hotel handily located in a narrow side street a couple of minutes’ walk north of the Burg. Mosquitoes can be a problem here, but the 22 rooms are neat, trim and modern. €95

Europ Augustijnenrei 18 050 33 79 75, hoteleurop.com; map. Three-star hotel in a late nineteenth-century townhouse overlooking a canal about a 5min walk north of the Burg. The public areas are somewhat frumpy and the modern bedrooms distinctly spartan, but the prices are very competitive. €95

De Goezeput Goezeputstraat 29 050 34 26 94, hotelgoezeput.be; map. In a charming location near the cathedral, this enjoyable two-star hotel occupies a thoroughly refurbished eighteenth-century convent. The guest rooms, which vary considerably in size, have been done out in contemporary style in shades of brown and cream, though the entrance, with its handsome wooden beams and staircase, has been left untouched. €95

Jacobs Baliestraat 1 050 33 98 31, hoteljacobs.be; map. A good budget option, this three-star hotel in a quiet, central location occupies a pleasantly modernized old brick building complete with a precipitous crow-step gable. The twenty-odd rooms are decorated in crisp, modern style, though some are a little small. €95

Montanus Nieuwe Gentweg 76 050 33 11 76, denheerd.be; map. This four-star hotel occupies a big old house that has been sympathetically modernized with little the decorative over-elaboration of many rivals. The twelve rooms here are large, comfortable and modern – and there are twelve more at the back, in chalet-like accommodation at the far end of the large garden. There’s also an especially appealing room in what amounts to a (cosy and luxurious) garden shed. The garden also accommodates an up-market restaurant. €120

Orangerie Kartuizerinnenstraat 10 050 34 16 49, hotelorangerie.be; map. In a former convent and one-time bakery, this classy, family-owned four-star hotel has twenty guest rooms, the pick of which are kitted out in an exuberant version of country-house style. The wood-panelled lounge oozes a relaxed and demure charm – as does the breakfast room - and a tunnel leads down to a canalside terrace. Great central location, too. €200

Die Swaene Steenhouwersdijk 1 050 34 27 98, dieswaene.com; map. In a perfect location, beside a particularly pretty and peaceful section of canal close to the Burg, this long-established four-star hotel has thirty guest rooms decorated in an individual and rather sumptuous antique style. There’s also a heated pool and sauna. €120

Ter Duinen Langerei 52 050 33 04 37, hotelterduinen.eu; map. Charming three-star hotel in a lovely part of the city, beside the Langerei canal, a 15min walk from the Markt. Occupies a beautifully maintained eighteenth-century villa, with period public areas and charming modern rooms. Superb breakfasts, too. €140

B&bs

Absoluut Verhulst Verbrand Nieuwland 1 050 33 45 15, b-bverhulst.com; map. Immaculate B&B with a handful of en-suite rooms in a tastefully modernized seventeenth-century house with its own walled garden. The Loft Suite is larger (and slightly more expensive) than the other rooms. €100

Côté Canal Hertsbergestraat 8–10 0475 45 77 07, bruges-bedandbreakfast.be; map. Deluxe affair in a pair of handsome – and handsomely restored – eighteenth-century houses, with four large guest rooms/suites kitted out in grand period style down to the huge, flowing drapes. Central location; the garden backs onto a canal. €165

Huis Koning Oude Zak 25 0476 25 08 12, huiskoning.be; map. A plushly renovated B&B in a seventeenth-century, step-gable terraced house with a pleasant canalside garden. The four en-suite guest rooms are decorated in a fresh-feeling modern style and two have canal views. €120

Number 11 Peerdenstraat 11 050 33 06 75, number11.be; map. In the heart of old Bruges, on a traffic-free side street, this first-rate B&B in an ancient terrace house has just four lavish guest rooms: all wooden floors, beamed ceilings and expensive wallpaper. Every comfort is laid on – and smashing breakfasts too. €150

Sint-Niklaas B&B St-Niklaasstraat 18 050 61 03 08, sintnik.be; map. In a good-looking, three-storey, eighteenth-century townhouse on a side street near the Markt, this well-kept B&B has three modern, en-suite guest rooms. One has a lovely view of the Belfort. €145

Hostels

Bruges Europa Baron Ruzettelaan 143 050 35 26 79, jeugdherbergen.be/en; map. Big and looking like a school, this HI hostel is set in its own grounds, a (dreary) 2km south of the centre in the suburb of Assebroek. There are over 200 beds in a mixture of rooms from doubles through to twelve-bed dorms, most en suite. Breakfast is included in the price and there are security lockers, wi-fi, free parking, a bar and a lounge. City bus #2 from outside Bruges train station goes within 200m – ask the driver to let you off at the Wantestraat bus stop. Dorms €24, doubles €52

St Christopher’s Bauhaus Langestraat 133–137 050 34 10 93, bauhaus.be; map. This lively, laid-back hostel, a 15min walk east of the Burg, has a boho air and offers a mishmash of rooms accommodating between two and sixteen bunks each, some with pod beds. Bike rental, lockers, a bar and café also available. Dorms €20, doubles €77

Eating

There are scores of cafés, café-bars and restaurants in Bruges, and mercifully few of them are chains. It’s true that many are geared up for the day-trippers, with variable results, but there’s also a slew of first-rate places who take their reputations seriously – and these range from the expensive to the affordable. Most waiters speak at least a modicum of English – many are fluent – and multilingual menus are the norm.

Cafés and café-bars

Blackbird Jan van Eyckplein 7 0471 67 98 31, blackbird-bruges.com; map. Infinitely cosy café with a lively eye to its decor. They throw a wide gastronomic net here – from breakfasts featuring all manner of healthy options (€12) through to sandwiches (€14), plus superb lunch-time salads, heaped high and very fresh (€16). Wed–Sat 9am–5pm, Sun 9.30am–1pm.

Books & Brunch Garenmarkt 30 050 70 90 79, booksandbrunch.be; map. There’s a cosy, family vibe at this cheerful little café, where they do tasty, healthy lunches and light meals prepared from organic sources. Cakes too – try the cupcakes – and a tasty cup of coffee. Mon–Fri 9am–3pm, but closed during some school holidays.

Café Craenenburg Markt 16 050 33 34 02, craenenburg.be; map. Unlike the Markt’s other tourist-dominated café-restaurants, this old-fashioned place still attracts a loyal local clientele. With its leather and wood panelling, wooden benches and mullion windows, the Craenenburg has the flavour of old Flanders, and although the daytime-only food is routine (mains average €20), it has a good range of beers, including a locally produced, tangy brown ale called Brugse Tripel. Mon–Fri 8am–11pm, Sat 8.30am–11pm.

Café Vlissinghe Blekersstraat 2 050 34 37 37, cafevlissinghe.be; map. With its wood panelling, antique paintings and long wooden tables, this is one of the oldest and most distinctive bars in Bruges, thought to date from 1515. The atmosphere is relaxed and easy-going, with the emphasis on quiet conversation – there are certainly no jukeboxes here – and the café-style food is very Flemish. There’s a pleasant garden terrace too. Wed–Sat 11am–10pm & Sun 11am–7pm.

In Den Wittenkop St-Jakobsstraat 14 050 33 20 59, indenwittenkop.be; map. This cosy restaurant with its hotchpotch decor specializes in traditional Flemish dishes – try, for example, the rabbit in prunes or the local speciality of pork and beef stewed in Trappist beer. There’s smooth jazz as background music and a small terrace out the back. Mains average €24, €15 for the dish of the day. Mon, Tues & Thurs–Sat noon–3pm & 6–10pm.

Lb DbB Kleine St-Amandsstraat 5 050 34 91 31, debelegdeboterham.be; map. Most of the cafés in and around the Markt are firmly tourist-orientated, but this bright and breezy little place, in attractively renovated old premises down a narrow lane, has a strong local following on account of its wonderfully substantial and absolutely delicious salads (€16). Mon–Sat 11.30am–4pm.

Le Pain Quotidien Simon Stevinplein 15 050 34 29 21, lepainquotidien.be; map. This popular café, part of a chain, occupies a grand old building on one of the city’s busiest squares and has a large terrace at the back. Much of the success of the chain is built upon its bread, wholefood and baked every which way. A substantial menu clocks up the likes of salads, light bites and cakes and they also do an excellent home-made soup and bread (€6.90), which makes a meal in itself. Mon–Sat 7am–7pm, Sun 8am–6pm.

Sorbetiere de Medici Geldmuntstraat 9 050 33 93 41, demedici.be; map. This two-floor café, with its huge mirror and spindly curving staircase, serves great coffee plus tasty pastas and salads. But these are as nothing compared to the hot dessert pies – the almond with red berry juice will have you weeping with delight. Mon 1–5pm, Tues–Sat 9am–5pm.

De Windmolen Carmersstraat 135 050 33 97 39; map. This amiable neighbourhood café-bar, in an old brick house at the east end of Carmersstraat, is a pick for its setting – away from the crowds and next to the grassy bank that marks the course of the old city wall. Has a competent beer menu and dishes up a decent line in inexpensive snacks – keep to the simpler offerings. Has a pleasant outside terrace and an interior dotted with folksy knick-knacks. Mon–Thurs 10am–10pm, Fri & Sun 10am–3pm.

Restaurants

Den Amand St-Amandstraat 4 050 34 01 22, denamand.be; map. This small and informal, family-run restaurant offers an inventive range of dishes combining Flemish, Italian and even Asian cuisines. Mains from the limited but well-chosen menu – for instance, brill in coconut milk – average a very reasonable €22. It’s a small place, so best to book a few hours in advance. Mon, Tues & Thurs–Sat noon–2.15pm & 6–9pm.

Christophe Garenmarkt 34 050 34 48 92, christophe-brugge.be; map. Rural chic furnishings and fittings make for a relaxing atmosphere at this little bistro, where a Franco-Flemish menu is especially strong on meat. One exception is the excellent bouillabaisse. Mains average €28. Mon & Thurs–Sun 6–11pm.

Kok au Vin Ezelstraat 19 050 33 95 21, kok-au-vin.be; map. Smart restaurant occupying tastefully modernized old premises on the north side of the city centre. A well-considered and ambitious menu covers all the Franco-Belgian bases and then some, with mains averaging around €25, though lunch is half that. Try the signature dish – coq au vin. Reservations essential. Tues–Sat noon–2pm & 6.30–9.30pm.

Pomperlut Minderbroedersstraat 26 050 70 86 26, pomperlut.be; map. This first-rate restaurant has got most things dead right – from the ersatz medievalism of the decor (the house is old, but the wood beams and large chimneypiece were inserted during the refurbishment) through to the Franco-Flemish cuisine: try, for example, the vol au vent with quail breast and sweetbread. Mains average (a slightly pricey) €31. Reservations essential. Wed & Sun 6–10pm, Thurs–Sat noon–2pm & 6–10pm.

Pro Deo Langestraat 161 050 33 73 55, bistroprodeo.be; map. This pocket-sized, bistro-style restaurant is a local favourite, its enterprising menu emphasizing traditional Flemish cuisine: try, for example, the filling stoofvlees (Flemish beef stew) for just €20. The decor is very folksy and there’s a jazz meets soul soundtrack. Tues–Fri noon–2pm & 6–9.30pm, Sat 6–10pm.

Refter Molenmeers 2 050 44 49 00, bistrorefter.com; map. Fashionable bistro-restaurant with über-cool decor where the emphasis is on classic Flemish dishes using local, seasonal ingredients – try the meatballs in a tarragon sauce. Competitively priced too, with a two-course set meal costing just €37, €19 at lunchtimes. Outside terrace for summertime dining; one criticism: the tables are too close together. Tues–Sat noon–2pm & 6.30–10pm.

De Stove Kleine St-Amandsstraat 4 050 33 78 35, restaurantdestove.be; map. Small Franco-Belgian restaurant that’s recommended by just about everyone. The menu is carefully constructed, with both fish and meat dishes given equal prominence. A la carte mains around €30, but the big deal is the three-course set menu for €52 (€70 with wine). Reservations essential. Mon, Tues, Fri & Sat 7–10pm, Sun noon–2pm & 7–10pm.

Drinking AND NIGHTLIFE

Few would say Bruges’ bars are cutting-edge, but neither are they staid and dull. Indeed, drinking in the city can be a real pleasure and one of the potential highlights of any visit. As for the club scene, Bruges struggles to make a real fist of it, though a couple of places are enjoyable enough.

B-in Oud-St Jan, off Mariastraat 050 31 13 00, b-in.be; map. The coolest place in town, this slick bar, club and restaurant is kitted out in attractive modern style with low sofa-seats and an eye-grabbing mix of coloured fluorescent tubes and soft ceiling lights. Guest DJs play funky, uplifting house and the drinks and cocktails are reasonably priced. Canalside terrace too. The club side of things gets going about 11pm. Free entry. Tues–Sat 11am–3am, sometimes later.

Het Brugs Beertje Kemelstraat 5 050 33 96 16, www.brugsbeertje.be; map. This small and friendly speciality beer bar claims a stock of three hundred brews (plus guest beers on draught), which aficionados reckon is one of the best selections in Belgium. There are tasty snacks too, such as cheeses and toasties. Very much on the (backpacker) tourist trail. Mon & Thurs–Sun 4pm–midnight.

L’Estaminet Park 5 050 33 09 16, estaminet-brugge.be; map. Groovy café-bar with a relaxed neighbourhood feel and (for Bruges) a diverse and cosmopolitan clientele. Drink either in the dark and almost mysterious interior or outside on the large sheltered terrace. Has a well-chosen beer menu, which skilfully picks its way through Belgium’s vast resources. Tues, Wed & Fri–Sun noon–1am or later, Thurs 5pm–1am or later.

Est Wijnbar Braambergstraat 7 0478 45 05 55, www.wijnbarest.be; map. Lively little wine bar, with a friendly and relaxed atmosphere, an extensive cellar and over twenty wines available by the glass every day. It’s especially strong on New World vintages. There’s live (and free) jazz, blues and folk music every Sun from 8pm and the premises are smallish, so expect a crush. Mon & Fri 4pm–midnight.

De Garre De Garre 1 050 34 10 29, degarre.be; map. Down a narrow alley off Breidelstraat, in between the Markt and the Burg, this cramped but charming and very ancient tavern has an outstanding range of Belgian beers and tasty snacks, while classical music adds to the relaxing air. Mon–Fri & Sun noon–midnight, Sat 11am–12.30am.

Lokkedize Korte Vuldersstraat 33 050 33 44 50; map. This popular café-bar is an atmospheric sort of place, all subdued lighting and soft sounds. There is regular live music too, everything from jazz and chanson through to R&B. Wed–Sun 6pm–2am.

Republiek St-Jacobsstraat 36 050 73 47 64, republiekbrugge.be; map. One of the most fashionable spots in town, this large and darkly lit café-bar attracts an arty, mostly youthful clientele. Very reasonably priced snacks, including vegetarian and pasta dishes, plus the occasional gig. Terrace at the back for summertime drinking. Daily noon–1/2am.

Festivals and events in Bruges

Leading festivals in Bruges’ crowded calendar include the Musica Antiqua festival of medieval music at the beginning of August, though this is but one small part of the more generalized Festival van Vlaanderen (Flanders Festival; March–Oct; mafestival.be), which comprises over 500 classical concerts distributed among the big Flemish-speaking cities, including Bruges. Bruges also hosts two big-deal music festivals: the Cactusfestival (cactusfestival.be) of rock, reggae, rap and roots, spread over three days on the second weekend of July; and Moods (moodsbrugge.be), two and a half weeks (usually from the last weekend of July) devoted to just about every type of music you can think of, with bands and artists drawn from every corner of the globe.

Shopping

’t Apostelientje Balstraat 11 050 33 78 60, apostelientje.be; map. Footsteps from the Kantcentrum, this small shop sells a charming variety of handmade lace pieces of both modern and traditional design; it’s easily the best lace shop in Bruges. Tues 1.15–5pm, Wed–Sat 9.30am–12.15pm & 1.15–5pm, Sun 9.30am–12.15pm.

Callebert Wollestraat 25 050 33 50 61, callebert.be; map. Bruges’ top contemporary homeware, ceramics and furniture shop, featuring leading brands such as Alessi and Bodum, as well as less familiar names. They also stock everything from bags, watches and jewellery to household utensils, textiles and tableware. Mon 2–6pm, Tues–Sat 10am–noon & 2–6pm, Sun 3–6pm.

The Chocolate Line Simon Stevinplein 19 050 34 10 90, thechocolateline.be; map. The best chocolate shop in town – and there’s some serious competition – with everything handmade using natural ingredients. Truffles and pralines are two specialities. Boxes of mixed chocolates are sold in various sizes: a 250g box costs €17. Mon & Sun 10.30am–6.30pm, Tues–Sat 9.30am–6.30pm.

Diksmuids Boterhuis Geldmuntstraat 23 050 33 32 43, diksmuidsboterhuis.be; map. One of the few traditional food shops to have survived in central Bruges, this Aladdin’s cave of a place specializes in cooked meats, breads, butters and Belgian cheeses. Tues–Sat 9.30am–12.30pm & 2–6.30pm.

Proxy Noordzand Noordzandstraat 4 050 34 16 12, delhaize.be; map. Ordinary shops have all but disappeared from central Bruges, but there are a couple of smallish supermarkets – and this is probably the best. Mon–Sat 8am–7.30pm.

Reisboekhandel Markt 13 050 49 12 29, www.dereyghere.be; map. Travel specialist with an extensive range of guide books and maps. Next door to – and sister shop of – De Reyghere. Mon 12.30–6pm, Tues–Sat 9.30am–12.30pm & 1.30–6pm.

De Reyghere Markt 12 050 33 34 03, www.dereyghere.be; map. Founded over a century ago, De Reyghere is a local institution and a meeting place for every book-lover in town. The shop stocks a wide range of domestic and foreign literature, art and reference books, and is also good for international newspapers, magazines and periodicals. Mon–Sat 9am–6pm.

De Striep Katelijnestraat 42 050 33 71 12, striepclub.be; map. Comics are a Belgian speciality (remember Tintin), but this is the only comic-strip specialist in Bruges, stocking everything from run-of-the-mill cheapies to collectors’ items in Flemish, French and even English. Mon 1.30–7pm, Tues–Sat 10am–12.30pm & 1.30–7pm.

Entertainment

Bruges puts on a varied programme of performing arts, mostly as part of its annual schedule of festivals and special events. As for film, Bruges has an excellent art-house cinema, where films are normally shown in the original language, with Dutch/Flemish subtitles as required. For details of upcoming events, consult the tourist information website (visitbruges.be/calendar) or pick up their free monthly events calendar.

Cinema Lumière St-Jacobstraat 36 050 34 34 65, lumierecinema.be. Bruges’ premier venue for alternative, cult, foreign and art-house movies, with three screens.

Concertgebouw ’t Zand 34 050 47 69 99, ticket line 070 22 33 02, concertgebouw.be. Built to celebrate Bruges’ year as a European Capital of Culture in 2002 and now hosting all the performing arts, from opera and classical music through to big-name bands.

Stadsschouwburg Vlamingstraat 29 050 44 30 60, ccbrugge.be. Occupying a big neo-Renaissance building from 1869, and with a wide-ranging programme, including theatre, dance, musicals, concerts and opera.

Marvin Gaye’s Ostend

One of the greatest soul singers of all time, Marvin Gaye (1939–1984) arrived in Ostend on 14 February 1981 and stayed here until the following year. A mightily troubled man, Gaye was struggling with both drug dependency and US tax demands when one of the few men he trusted, the Belgian music producer and club owner, Freddy Cousaert, suggested he come to live with him and his family in his Ostend apartment. All in all, Gaye benefited enormously from his time here in Ostend, apparently more content than he had been for most of his life and it was here that he wrote and recorded his biggest hit, Sexual Healing. Capitalizing on Gaye’s stay here, Ostend tourist office has assembled the outstanding “Marvin Gaye Midnight Love Digital Tour”, an audio tour that guides you around every place with a Gaye connection, all to a great soundtrack, and takes a couple of hours to complete; the headphones and set can be collected from the tourist office and cost €5. As for Gaye himself, he returned to the States, where his life resumed its difficult trajectory, ending in bizarre circumstances in Los Angeles when his father shot him.

Brief history

The old fishing village of Ostend was given a town charter in the thirteenth century, in recognition of its growing importance as a port for trade across the Channel. Flanked by an empty expanse of sand dune, it remained the only important coastal settlement hereabouts until the construction of Zeebrugge six centuries later – the dunes were always an inadequate protection against the sea and precious few people chose to live along the coast until a chain of massive sea walls was completed in the nineteenth century. Like so many other towns in the Spanish Netherlands, Ostend was attacked and besieged time and again, winning the admiration of Protestant Europe in resisting the Spaniards during a desperate siege that lasted from 1601 to 1604. Later, convinced of the wholesome qualities of sea air and determined to impress other European rulers with their sophistication, Belgium’s first kings, Léopold I and II, turned Ostend into a chichi resort, demolishing the town walls and dotting the outskirts with prestigious buildings and parks. Several of these have survived, but others were destroyed during World War II, when the town’s docks made it a prime bombing target. After the war, Ostend resumed its role as a major cross-Channel port until the completion of the Channel Tunnel in 1994 undermined its position. Since then, Ostend has had to reinvent itself, emphasizing its charms as a seaside resort and centre of culture. There’s some way to go – but Ostend is definitely on the up.

Visserskaai

With a string of restaurants on one side and fish stalls on the other, Visserskaai cuts a jaunty path up from the train station along the side of the Montgomery Dok, named after the British commander and formerly the main car-ferry dock. The fish stalls offer a wide range of fresh, cooked and dried fish partly supplied by Ostend’s own fishing fleet. Here also is the jetty for the passenger ferry that shuttles across the harbour to Fort Napoleon and the fish market, the Vistrap (daily 8am–4pm). The north end of Visserskaai sports a large and somehow rather engaging piece of contemporary sculpture, the orange-red figures of Rock Strangers by Belgium’s own Arne Quinze (b. 1971).

The seafront and beach

Casino & Kursaal, Monacoplein Casino Gaming daily 3pm–5am • 059 70 51 11, casinooostende.be Kursaal 059 29 50 50, kursaaloostende.be

From the far end of Visserskaai, there are fine coastal views with the assorted moles and docks of the harbour in one direction, Ostend’s main beach extending as far as the eye can see in the other. On sunny summer days, hundreds drive into town to enjoy the beach, soaking up the sun, swimming and doing all the traditional seaside stuff – from sandcastle building to flying kites. Others amble or cycle along the seafront promenade, which runs along the top of the sea wall: part sea defence and part royal ostentation, the promenade was built to link the town centre with the Wellington racecourse, 2km to the west. It was – and remains – an intentionally grand walkway that pandered to the grandiose tastes of King Léopold II, though the first landmarks – the casino and adjoining Kursaal exhibition and concert centre – were added in the 1950s. To hammer home the original royal point, Léopold’s statue, with fawning Belgians and Congolese at its base, still stands in the middle of a long line of columns towards the promenade’s west end. These columns now adjoin the Thermae Palace Hotel, which was the epitome of luxury when it was added in the 1930s.

James Ensorhuis

Vlaanderenstraat 27 • Mon & Wed–Sun 10am –noon & 2–5pm • €2 • 059 50 81 18, muzee.be

The James Ensorhuis, footsteps from the seafront promenade, is of some specialist interest as the artist’s home for the last thirty years of his life. It was from here that his aunt and uncle sold shells and souvenirs – hence the assorted knick-knacks in the window – but the shop is long gone and the ground floor now exhibits a few Ensor-related incidentals, masks and so forth. Upstairs you’ll find the painter’s living room-cum-studio – the Blue Room – which has been returned to something like its appearance at the time of his death, a cluttered and somehow rather repressed room decorated with his intense paintings, though these aren’t originals.

Wapenplein

At the centre of Ostend is the Wapenplein, a pleasant open space that zeros in on an old-fashioned bandstand. Typical of so much of Ostend, the square was once in the doldrums, but canny planning and sympathetic redevelopment have turned it into a very sociable spot. The south side of the square is dominated by the former Feest-en Kultuurpaleis (Festival and Culture Hall), a handsome vaguely Ruritanian building from the 1950s that is now a shopping centre. The Wapenplein is at the northern end of pedestrianized Kapellestraat, the principal shopping street.

St-Petrus-en-Pauluskerk

St-Petrus-en-Paulusplein • Daily 9am–noon & 3–5pm • Free • 059 70 17 19

Downtown Ostend is largely modern, its oldest buildings mostly dating from the end of the nineteenth century. At first glance, the whopping, twin-towered St-Petrus-en-Pauluskerk appears to buck this trend, its fancy stonework looking distinctly Gothic, but the church does in fact date from the early twentieth century. At the back of the church is the last remnant of its predecessor, a massive sixteenth-century brick tower – the Peperbusse – with a canopied, distinctly morbid shrine of the Crucifixion at its base.

Léopold II-laan

Mercator daily 10am–5pm • €5 • 049 451 43 35, zeilschipmercator.be

The dead-straight boulevard of Léopold II-laan cuts past the little lakes, bandstand and mini-bridges of the Léopoldpark, a delightful and especially verdant park laid out in the 1860s. Across the boulevard, unmissable on Hendrik Serruyslaan, is the former post office, the Grote Post, a forceful 1950s building with a mighty statue of a messenger standing on a parapet to a design by Belgium’s Gaston Eysselinck. Further down the boulevard you reach the sailing ship Mercator, the old training vessel of the Belgian merchant navy, which has been converted into a marine museum holding a hotchpotch of items accumulated during her voyages.

Mu.ZEE

Romestraat 11 • Tues–Sun 10am–6pm • €9, but temporary exhibitions can be extra • 059 50 81 18, muzee.be

The Mu.ZEE (Kunstmuseum aan Zee), Ostend’s capacious fine art museum, displays a wide selection of modern Belgian paintings drawn from its permanent collection alongside top-quality temporary exhibitions, mostly of modern and contemporary work. The lay-out of the museum is a tad puzzling, but it begins well on the ground floor with a show-piece permanent exhibition on the life and times of Ostend’s two leading artists – Leon Spilliaert and James Ensor – who witnessed the transformation of Ostend from garrison town and fishing village to royal resort. The oldest of seven children and the son of a perfumer, Leon Spilliaert (1881–1946) was smitten by the land- and seascapes of his home town, using them in his work time and again – as in De Windstoot (Gust of Wind), with its dark, forbidding colours and screaming woman, and the comparable Vertigo. James Ensor (1860–1949), the son of an English father and Flemish mother, was barely noticed until the 1920s, spending nearly all of his 89 years working in Ostend, but is now considered a pioneer of Expressionism. His first paintings were rather sombre portraits and landscapes, but in the early 1880s he switched to brilliantly contrasting colours, most familiarly in his Self-portrait with Flowered Hat, a deliberate variation on Rubens’ famous self-portraits. Less well known is his large and very bizarre Christ’s Entry into Brussels and, from a later period, The Artist’s Mother in Death, a fine, penetrating example of his preoccupation with the grim and macabre. The museum also exhibits a number of Ensor’s etchings and gouaches, including a savage The Gendarmes with their bloodied bayonets.

Moving on, the museum’s first floor is given over to temporary exhibitions, while the second floor offers a regularly rotated selection from the permanent collection. Highlights include works by Constant Permeke, the harsh Surrealism of Paul Delvaux, and a number of paintings by the versatile and prolific Jean Brusselmans (1884–1953), most notably his stunningly beautiful Thunderstorm (Het Onweder).

Fort Napoleon

Vuurtorenweg • April–June, Sept & Oct Wed–Sun 10am–5pm; July & Aug daily 10am–5pm; Nov–March Wed 1–5pm, Sat & Sun 10am–5pm • €8 • 059 32 00 48, fortnapoleon.be • Take coastal tram to “Duin en Zee” stop, from where it’s a (signed) 5–10min walk; or catch the free passenger ferry (April–Sept daily 6.30am–9pm, every 30min–1hr; Oct–March daily 8am–6pm, hourly) across the harbour from Montgomery Dok to Maritiemplein, a 10min walk from the fort

Completed in 1812, Fort Napoleon is one of the best-preserved Napoleonic fortresses in Europe, an impressive star-shaped structure whose concentric brick walls are planted amongst the dunes behind the seashore on the eastern side of Ostend’s harbour. The careful design meant that potential attackers could be fired on from almost every angle and so confident were the French of the fort’s impregnability that the garrison never exceeded 260 men (and 46 cannon). It takes about twenty minutes to wander the fort’s long, echoing galleries, but in truth there’s nothing much to see apart from the actual structure.

Arrival and Information: Ostend

By train Ostend’s grand and stately train station is on the east edge of the town centre, a 10min stroll from the tourist information office.

Destinations Bruges (every 20min; 15min); Brussels (hourly; 1hr 20min); Ghent (every 30min; 40min).

By bus The bus station is adjacent to the train station.

Destinations Diksmuide (Mon–Fri hourly, Sat & Sun every 2hr; 50min); Veurne (hourly; 1hr).

By coastal tram The coastal tram has two stops in central Ostend: at the train station and on Marie Joséplein.

Destinations De Haan (every 15min in summer, every 30min in winter; 20min); De Panne (same frequency; 1hr 20min); Knokke (same frequency; 1hr); Nieuwpoort (same frequency; 40min).

Tourist information Ostend’s excellent tourist office is across the street from the casino at Monacoplein 2 (April–June daily 10am–6pm; July & Aug daily 9am–7pm; Sept–March daily 10am–5.30pm; 059 70 11 99, visitoostende.be).

Getting around

By bike One of the most reliable bike rental places is Nico, at Albert 1 Promenade 44A (July & Aug daily 9am–8pm; rest of year times vary – ring ahead; 059 23 34 81, nicokarts.be). They also do four-seater bikes and tandems.

By ferry There are currently no car ferries from the UK to Ostend and the nearest you’ll get is Zeebrugge, a few kilometres east along the coast, which has a ferry link with Hull.

By car Try Europcar at Zandvoordeschorredijkstraat 48 (059 50 12 18); tourist information has a complete list of local car rental agencies.

Accommodation

The best option is a beachside hotel, but these are few and far between (most of the seashore is given over to apartment blocks), so you might plump instead for the area round Léopoldpark on the west side of the city centre, a pleasant district with a relaxed and easy air. There’s also a good and centrally located HI hostel.

Andromeda Kursaal Westhelling 5 059 80 66 11, andromedahotel.be; map. Smart and modern, four-star high-rise next door to the casino, and overlooking the town’s beach. Many rooms have balconies and sea views (for a surcharge of around €40), plus there are fitness facilities and an indoor pool. €140

De Hofkamers Ijzerstraat 5 059 70 63 49, dehofkamers.be; map. A family-run, 27-room, three-star hotel whose somewhat dour exterior belies its cosy public areas, kitted out with all sorts of local bygones, and the comfortable bedrooms beyond. The nicest room, on the top (sixth) floor, has its own mini-balcony with a view (albeit a somewhat distant one) of the sea. Excellent breakfasts too. €110

De Ploate Hostel Langestraat 72 059 80 52 97, jeugdherbergen.be; map. Well maintained and occupying bright, modern premises, this HI hostel sits right in the centre of town and offers 49 en-suite rooms of varying sizes. There’s free wi-fi, a bar and self-catering facilities plus a sociable TV room. The overnight fee includes breakfast. Reservations are strongly advised in summer. Dorms €25, doubles €62

Prado Léopold II-laan 22 059 70 53 06, hotelprado.be; map. Very likeable three-star hotel with neatly furnished modern rooms, attentive staff, especially tasty breakfasts, and views over a mini-park-cum-square, Marie Joséplein. Ask for a room at the front, overlooking the square – and a few floors up from the traffic. €130

Princess Boekareststraat 7 059 70 68 88, hotelprincess.be; map. Family-owned 35-room hotel in a modern block on a narrow side street a couple of minutes’ walk from the beach. The rooms are neat and trimly decorated and the better ones have mini-balconies. Minimum two- or three-night stay in peak periods. €120

Thermae Palace Koningin Astridlaan 7 059 80 66 44, thermaepalace.be; map. Located a 10min walk west of the centre, this four-star hotel long enjoyed the reputation of being Ostend’s best. The building is certainly striking – think Art Deco extravagance, expansive public rooms and spacious bedrooms offering sea views – yet the place can’t help but seem a little sorry for itself: there’s just so much here to keep in good working order. €140

Eating

Ostend has scores of cafés, café-bars and restaurants, with the big gastronomic deal being seafood – as also evidenced by the seafood stalls lining up along Visserskaai. The enterprising tourist board has led a campaign to encourage the use of less familiar fish, and the results are visible on many a menu.

Bistro Mathilda Léopold II-laan 1 059 51 06 70, bistromathilda.be; map. Smooth, slick and stylish restaurant in modern premises with attentive service and a wonderfully creative menu that’s especially strong on seafood: try, for example, the Dover sole à la meunière or the lamb couscous. Mains average €29. Wed–Sun noon–2.30pm & 6–10pm.

‘t Groote Huyse Karel Janssenlaan 10 059 70 10 67, tgrootehuys.be; map. Set in a cleverly reconfigured nineteenth-century mansion, this delightful café-restaurant offers an inventive menu which is particularly strong on salads and pasta dishes, which average about €15. Pancakes too (from €4). Has a lovely, leafy terrace at the back. Wed & Thurs 11.30am–3.30pm, Fri & Sat 11.30am–3.30pm & 6.30pm–11pm.

Lobster Van Iseghemlaan 64 059 50 02 82, lobster.be; map. No prizes for guessing the house speciality at this long-established restaurant, which deserves its reputation for reliability. Don’t be put off by the rather dismal entrance, as the dining area itself is fine. A two-course “Menu of the Month” costs €42. Mon noon–2pm, Wed–Sun noon–2pm & 6.30–9.30pm.

Mosselbeurs Dwarsstraat 10 059 80 73 10, demosselbeurs.be; map. One of the liveliest restaurants in town, with cheerfully naff nautical fittings and top-notch seafood dishes, especially eels and mussels. Reasonable prices, too, with mains from €23. Down a narrow side street near the Visserskaai. Wed–Sun noon–2pm & 6–10pm.

Le Roy Henry Albert I-promenade 65 059 51 87 50, auroyhenry.be; map. Of all the many restaurants that line up along Ostend’s elongated seafront, this is certainly one of the best, offering a classic Flemish menu of well-presented, home-cooked meals. Eat either inside or on the sheltered patio. Mussels are the house speciality, but the steaks and salads are especially tasty too. Mains average €23. Mon, Tues & Thurs–Sun 10.30am–11pm, kitchen till 9.30pm; closed Thurs out of season.

drinking

Ostend does well for cafés and restaurants, but the bars that are dotted across the city centre are harder to warm to, with the majority pretty rough and ready, or at least dark and gloomy.

Café Botteltje Louisastraat 19 059 70 09 28, cafebotteltje.be; map. Ersatz brown café with a bit more character than most of the bars in downtown Ostend, its deep and dark (maybe even gloomy) interior equipped with a formidable selection of bottled and draught beers, of which there are usually sixteen. Mon 4.30pm–1am, Tues–Sun 11.30am–1am.

Café du Parc Marie Joséplein 3 059 51 13 05, brasserieduparc.be; map. Old-fashioned café a short stroll from the beach, whose main claim to fame is its Art Deco furnishings and fittings – from the Tiffany glass down to the wooden chairs and leather benches. The drinks are fine, but it is perhaps best to avoid the food. Tues–Sun 8am–9pm; closed Tues in winter.

The coast east of Ostend

Heading east along the coast from Ostend, the undoubted highlight is De Haan, the prettiest and the most appealing seaside resort of them all. Beyond lie kiss-me-quick Blankenberge, the heavily industrialized port of Zeebrugge and sprawling Knokke-Heist. The latter is not an immediately appealing place, but you might be drawn here by one of its many festivals, most notably the International Cartoon Festival (cartoonfestival.be), which runs from early July to the middle of September.

The Kusttram – the coastal tram

Fast and efficient, the Kusttram (delijn.be/en/kusttram/) travels the length of the Belgian coast from Knokke-Heist train station in the east to De Panne train station in the west, putting all the Belgian resorts within easy striking distance of each other. Services are regular in both directions with trams departing every fifteen minutes or so in summer and about every half-hour in winter. Tickets can be bought from the driver or from a De Lijn ticket office – there is one beside Ostend train station and another on Ostend’s central Marie Joséplein. Fares are inexpensive: a flat-rate, single-journey ticket costs €3, or you can opt for unlimited tram travel for one day (the dagpas; €6, €8 from the driver), or three days (meerdagenpas; €12, not available from the driver).

De Haan

Flanked by empty sand dunes, DE HAAN is a leafy family resort with an excellent beach and a pleasant seafront promenade. It was established at the end of the nineteenth century, conceived as an exclusive seaside village in a rustic Gothic Revival style known as Style Normand. The building plots were irregularly dispersed between the tram station and the sea, with the whole caboodle set around a pattern of winding streets reminiscent of – and influenced by – contemporaneous English suburbs. The only formality was provided by a central circus with a casino plonked in the middle, though this was demolished in 1929. Casino apart, De Haan has survived pretty much intact – a welcome relief from the surrounding apartment-block developments.

Arrival and Information: De Haan

By tram De Haan aan Zee coastal tram stop is a 5–10min walk from the beach.

Destinations Ostend (every 15min in summer, every 30min in winter; 20min); Knokke (same frequency; 40min).

Tourist information The tourist office is next door to De Haan aan Zee tram stop (April–June, Sept & Oct daily 9.30am–noon & 1.30–5pm; July & Aug daily 9.30am–1pm & 1.30–6pm; Nov–March Mon–Sat 9.30am–noon & 1.30–4pm, Sun 10am–2pm; 059 24 21 34, visitdehaan.be). They issue a useful English-language leaflet describing local cycling routes.

Getting around

By bike Cycle rental is available at André Fietsen, Léopoldlaan 9 (Tues–Sun 9am–6pm; 059 23 37 89, fietsenandre.be). They also hire out all sorts of children’s bikes, tandems and family buggies.

Accommodation

Auberge des Rois Beach Hotel Zeedijk 1 059 23 30 18, beachhotel.be; map. This smart, modern, medium-sized, four-star hotel has a splendid location, overlooking the beach and just a few metres from an undeveloped tract of sand dune. The guest rooms are spick and span and the best have wide sea views (attracting a €35 premium). Feb & April–Dec. €140

Hotel Rubens Rubenslaan 3 059 24 22 00, hotel-rubens.be; map. In a tastefully decorated, cottage-like house, the guest rooms at this small, three-star hotel are spotless and cosy in equal measure. The hotel prides itself on its banquet breakfasts, which can be taken outside in the garden when the weather is good. There’s also an outside pool. €110

Manoir Carpe Diem Prins Karellaan 12 059 23 32 20, manoircarpediem.com; map. Chichi, four-star hotel in a handsome Style Normand villa, which perches on a grassy knoll about 400m from the beach. It’s all very period – from the Dutch gables, open fires and heavy drapes through to the fifteen guest rooms, which are decorated in an attractive version of country-house style. There’s an immaculate garden and an outside pool too. €180

Eating

Bleu Chaud Koninklijk Baan 15 059 32 38 35, bleuchaud.be; map. Bright and cheerful modern restaurant, just metres from the seafront, where grilled meats are the speciality, cooked on an open range. Delicious beef stews too. Mains average €25. April–Oct Wed & Thurs 6–9.30pm, Fri–Sun noon–2.15pm & 6–9.30pm; Nov–March Fri 6–9.30pm, Sat & Sun noon–2.15pm & 6–9.30pm.

L’Espérance Driftweg 1 059 32 69 00; map. De Haan has a healthy supply of cafés and restaurants and this is one of the more distinctive, a small, smart and intimate place offering classic French cuisine. A three-course set meal costs about €40. Reservations advised. Mon & Thurs–Sun noon–2pm & 6–9.30pm.

Tearoom Beaufort Koninklijk Plein 6 059 23 63 33, beaufort.be; map. Recently revamped, this modern café-cum-restaurant has a spacious terrace to soak up the sun and offers a good range of snacks and light meals. Pancakes from €4. Tues–Sun 8am–10pm.

The coast west of Ostend

Travelling west from Ostend, the Kusttram (coastal tram) skirts the sand dunes of a long and almost entirely undeveloped stretch of coast dotted with the substantial military remains of the Atlantikwall (Atlantic Wall), built during the German occupation of World War II to guard the coast from Allied invasion. Beyond, the tram ploughs through a series of medium-sized resorts before cutting inland to round the estuary of the River Ijzer. It then scuttles through the small town of Nieuwpoort, scene of some of the bloodiest fighting in World War I, before proceeding onto St-Idesbald, home to the intriguing Paul Delvaux Museum. After St-Idesbald comes De Panne, an uninspiring resort at the west end of the Belgian coast that is partly redeemed by its proximity to a pristine slice of beach and dune, the Staatsnatuurreservaat De Westhoek.

The Atlantikwall

Nieuwpoortsesteenweg • Mid–March to mid-Nov daily 10.30am –5pm • €8 • 059 70 22 85, raversyde.be • From the Domein Raversijde tram stop (not the Raversijde stop), take the conspicuous wooden stairway over the dunes and then follow the signs, a 5–10min walk

A slice of coast just to the west of Ostend has managed to dodge development and it’s here you’ll find the Domein Raversijde, a protected area where the most interesting attraction is the open-air Atlantikwall, a series of well-preserved gun emplacements, bunkers, pillboxes, tunnels, trenches and artillery pieces that line up along the dunes just behind the beach and the coastal tram line. The Germans had these elaborate fortifications constructed in World War II to forestall an Allied invasion, though in the event the Allies landed much further to the west in France. The remains are extensive and take well over an hour to explore.

Nieuwpoort

Nieuwpoort Stad tram stop

Nudging back from the canalized River Ijzer, a couple of kilometres inland from the coast, the little town of NIEUWPOORT hasn’t had much luck. Founded in the twelfth century, it was besieged nine times in the following six hundred years, but this was nothing compared to its misfortune in World War I. In 1914, the first German campaign reached the River Ijzer, prompting the Belgians to open the sluice gates on the northeast edge of town. The water stopped the invaders in their tracks and permanently separated the armies, but it also put Nieuwpoort on the front line, where it remained for the rest of the war. Four years of shelling reduced the town to a ruin, and most of what you see today, especially the attractive main square, the Marktplein, a five-minute walk south from the Nieuwpoort Stad tram stop, is the result of a meticulous restoration that lasted well into the 1920s.

Westfront Nieuwpoort Museum

Kustweg 2, 250m east of the Nieuwpoort Stad tram stop • Jan–June & Sept–Dec daily 10am–5pm; July & Aug daily 10am–6pm • Last admission 1hr before closing • €7 • 058 23 07 33, westfrontnieuwpoort.be

A large and sombre war memorial, comprising an Art Deco stone rotunda with an equestrian statue of King Albert I at its centre, stands on the east side of town beside the old sluice gates. Beneath the rotunda is the fascinating, semi-subterranean Westfront Nieuwpoort Museum, whose one long gallery is divided into several distinct sections. One section holds a huge panoramic screen on which are projected scenes from World War I as it unfolded at Nieuwpoort, a second tracks through the German invasion of 1914 and a third, perhaps the most interesting, explores and explains the opening of the sluice gates and the flooding that followed – how it worked, whose idea it was and the bravery of the men who undertook it. You can also take the lift up to the walkway at the top of the rotunda, from where there are wide views over what was once the front line. Immediately outside the museum, a large and partly buried concrete bunker is a further reminder of the war and from here it’s the briefest of walks to the assorted war memorials that dot the ring of sluice gates that proved so crucial in stopping the German advance.

St-Idesbald: the Paul Delvaux Museum

Paul Delvauxlaan 42, off Pannelaan • April–Sept Tues–Sun 10.30am–5.30pm; Oct–Dec Thurs–Sun 10.30am–5.30pm • €10 • 058 52 12 29, delvauxmuseum.com • From the Koksijde St-Idesbald tram stop, walk 100m west towards De Panne, turn left (away from the coast) down the resort’s main street, Strandlaan, and keep going until you reach Albert Nazylaan, where you go right, following the signs to the museum – allow 15min

ST-IDESBALD, one hour by tram from Ostend, is an unassuming seaside town that would be of no particular interest were it not for the Paul Delvaux Museum, which occupies a handsome house purchased by the artist’s own foundation in the 1980s and subsequently remodelled and enlarged. The museum holds a comprehensive collection of paintings by Paul Delvaux (1897–1994), following his development from early Expressionist days through to the Surrealism that defined his oeuvre from the 1930s onwards. Two of the artist’s pet motifs were train stations, in one guise or another, and nude or semi-nude women set against some sort of classical backdrop. His intention was to usher the viewer into the unconscious with dreamlike images where every perspective is exact, but, despite the impeccable craftsmanship, there’s something very cold about his vision. At their best, his paintings achieve an almost palpable sense of foreboding, good examples being The Garden of 1971 and The Procession dating from 1963, while The Station in the Forest of 1960 has the most wonderful trees.

De Panne

From St-Idesbald, it only takes the tram a couple of minutes to slide into DE PANNE, sitting close to the French border and now one of the largest settlements on the Belgian coast – a mishmash of apartment blocks and second homes shunting up against the beach. As late as the 1880s, De Panne was a tiny fishing village of low white cottages, nestling in the wooded hollow (panne) from which it takes its name. The town achieved ephemeral fame in World War I, when it was part of the tiny triangle of Belgian territory that the German army failed to occupy, becoming the temporary home of King Albert’s government.

Natuurreservaat De Westhoek

Main access point just to the west of De Panne on Schuilhavenlaan • Open access • Free • From De Panne Esplanade tram stop, proceed along Dynastielaan, which ends at a T-junction, where you turn left onto Schuilhavenlaan; distance from the tram stop to the park entrance is 1.6km

On the western edge of De Panne – and the main reason to come this far – lies a chunk of coast protected in the Natuurreservaat De Westhoek, whose dunes, grasslands and scrub are fringed by a long sandy beach. It feels surprisingly wild here, and you can explore the reserve along a network of marked footpaths. In 1940, the retreating British army managed to reach these same sand dunes between De Panne and Dunkirk, 15km to the west, just in time for their miraculous evacuation back to England – in eight days, an armada of vessels of all sizes and shapes rescued over three hundred thousand Allied soldiers.

< Back to Flanders

Veurne and around

Small-town Flanders at its prettiest, VEURNE is a charming little place, whose clutch of ancient buildings, relaxed atmosphere and pavement cafés make for an enjoyable overnight stay. The town was founded in the ninth century as one of a chain of fortresses built to defend the region from the raids of the Vikings, yet without much success: Veurne failed to flourish and, two centuries later, remained a small, poor and insignificant settlement. All that changed, though, when Robert II of Flanders returned from the Crusades in 1099 with a piece of the True Cross. His ship was caught in a gale and, in desperation, he vowed to offer the relic to the first church he saw if he survived. He did, and the lucky beneficiary was Veurne’s St-Walburgakerk, which became an important centre of medieval pilgrimage for some two hundred years, a real fillip to the local economy. These days, Veurne’s main attraction is its Grote Markt, one of the best-preserved town squares in Belgium, but it’s also a useful base for exploring, preferably by bike, the Veurne-Ambacht, a flat agricultural region of quiet villages and narrow country lanes that stretches south of the town, encircled by the French border and the canalized River Ijzer. Of all the villages hereabouts, Lo is the most delightful, but the district also holds a sprinkling of World War I sights that lie dotted along the line of the River Ijzer, which formed the front line for most of the war; the most interesting of these are in the vicinity of the small town of Diksmuide.

VEURNE’s Boeteprocessie (Penitents’ Procession)

In 1650 a young soldier by the name of Mannaert was on garrison duty here in Veurne when he was persuaded by his best friend to commit a mortal sin. After receiving the consecrated wafer during Communion, he took it out of his mouth, wrapped it in a cloth, and returned to his lodgings where he charred it over a fire, under the illusion that by reducing it to powder he would make himself invulnerable to injury. The news got out, and he was later arrested, tried and executed, his friend suffering the same fate a few weeks later. Fearful of the consequences of this sacrilege in their town, the people of Veurne resolved that something must be done, deciding on a procession to commemorate the Passion of Christ. This survives as the Boeteprocessie (Penitents’ Procession; boetprocessie.be), held on the last Sunday in July, whose leading figures dress up in the brown cowls of the Capuchins to carry wooden crosses that weigh anything up to 50kg through the streets. Until very recently, the procession was a serious-minded, macabre affair, but nowadays lots of locals clamber into all manner of vaguely “biblical” gear to join in, which makes it all rather odd.

Grote Markt

All of Veurne’s leading sights are located on or around the Grote Markt, beginning in the northwest corner with the Stadhuis, an engaging mix of Gothic and Renaissance styles built between 1596 and 1612 and equipped with a fine blue-and-gold decorated stone loggia projecting from the original brick facade. The Stadhuis connects with the more austere classicism of the Gerechtshof (Law Courts), whose symmetrical pilasters and long, rectangular windows now front the tourist information office, but once sheltered the Inquisition as it set about the Flemish peasantry with gusto. The attached tiered and balconied Belfort (belfry; no public access) was completed in 1628, its Gothic lines culminating in a dainty Baroque tower, from where carillon concerts ring out over the town throughout the summer.

St-Walburgakerk

St-Walburgastraat • April to early Nov daily 9am–6pm; early Nov to March Wed, Sat & Sun 9am–6pm • Free

Just off the Grote Markt stands St-Walburgakerk, a replacement for the original church that Robert II of Flanders caught sight of, which was burnt to a cinder in 1353. The new church was begun in style with a mighty, heavily buttressed choir, but the money ran out during construction and the nave – a truncated affair if ever there was one – was only finished off in 1904. The interior has four highlights: the exquisite vaulting of the ceiling; the superb stonework of the tubular, composite columns at the central crossing; a handsome set of stained-glass windows, some Gothic, some neo-Gothic; and the ornately carved Flemish Renaissance choir stalls.

Spaans Paviljoen

Ooststraat 1, northeast corner of the Grote Markt • No public access

The Spaans Paviljoen (Spanish Pavilion) was built as the town hall in the middle of the fifteenth century, but takes its name from its later adaptation as the officers’ quarters of the Habsburg garrison. It’s a self-confident structure, the initial square brick tower, with its castellated parapet, extended by a facade of long, slender windows and flowing stone tracery in the true Gothic manner – an obvious contrast to the Flemish shutters and gables of the Oude Vleeshalle (Old Meat Hall) standing directly opposite.

Hoge Wacht

Grote Markt 9, southeast corner of the Grote Markt • No public access

Originally an inn and later the home of the town watch – hence its name - the Hoge Wacht displays a fetching amalgam of styles, its brick gable decorated with a small arcaded gallery, its upper windows guarded by brightly painted shutters. It was here that Veurne’s wealthier citizens gathered to shoot the breeze, long after they had stopped watching anyone.

Arrival and Information: Veurne

By train Veurne’s train station is a 5–10min stroll from the Grote Markt.

Destinations De Panne (hourly; 10min); Diksmuide (hourly; 10min); Ghent (hourly; 1hr).

By bus Veurne’s bus station is adjacent to the train station.

Destinations Ieper (Mon–Fri 4 daily; 1hr); Lo (Mon–Fri 4 daily; 25min); Ostend (hourly; 1hr).

Tourist information Grote Markt 29 (April to early Nov Mon–Fri 9am–5pm, Sat & Sun 10am–5pm; early Nov to March Mon–Fri 9am–5pm, Sat & Sun 1–5pm; 058 33 55 31, toerisme-veurne.be).

Getting around

By bike The most central bicycle rental outlet is at the De Loft hotel; cycling maps are on sale at Veurne tourist information.

accommodation

Hostellerie Croonhof Noordstraat 9 058 31 31 28, croonhof.be; map. This smart and well-cared-for three-star hotel, in an attractively converted old house just off the Grote Markt, has fourteen spotless rooms of modern demeanour. Advance reservations are advised in summer. €100

‘t Kasteel & ’t Koetshuys Lindendreef 5 058 31 53 72, kasteelenkoetshuys.be; map. Family-run hotel in a sympathetically renovated Edwardian mansion that now holds eight large and well-appointed guest rooms, each of which is decorated in relaxing pastel shades with high ceilings and marble fireplaces. A sauna and hot tub complete the appealing picture. €120

De Loft Oude Vestingstraat 36 058 31 59 49, deloft.be; map. In a cleverly recycled industrial building, this eight-room hotel is an inventive affair, with a café, a kids’ play area and a small art gallery. The guest rooms are kitted out in the full flush of modern style with lots of greys, creams and blues. Cycle rental available too. €100

Eating

De Beurs Grote Markt 32 0491 59 00 13, debeursveurne.be; map. In every Belgian town, café-restaurants line up along the main square – and Veurne is no exception - but this popular spot, with its attractive pavement terrace, is exceptionally good, its imaginative salads delicious, its fish and meat dishes well prepared and presented. Mains around €18. Wed–Sun 9am–11pm.

Olijfboom Noordstraat 3 058 31 70 77, www.olijfboom.be; map. Arguably the best restaurant in town, this chic and modern place has a well-considered French menu where the lobster (kreeft) and bouillabaisse are hard to beat. Mains average €25. Tues–Sat noon–2pm & 7–9.30pm.

De Plakker Grote Markt 14 058 31 51 20, deplakker.be; map. Bistro-style restaurant with a wide-ranging menu from pastas to mussels and chips, home-made shrimp croquettes and beef stew, though its hallmark dish is grilled steak (€28). Mon–Wed, Sat & Sun 10.30am–11pm, Fri 5.30–11pm; kitchen Mon–Wed, Sat & Sun noon–2.30pm & 6–10pm, Fri 6–10pm.

Lo

The agreeable little hamlet of LO, off the N8 some 15km southeast of Veurne, has one claim to fame: it was here that Julius Caesar tethered his horse to a yew on his way across Gaul, an event recalled by a plaque and a battered old tree beside what is now the Westpoort, whose twin turrets and gateway are all that remains of Lo’s medieval ramparts. Less apocryphally, the village once prospered under the patronage of its Augustinian abbey, founded in the twelfth century and suppressed by the French Revolutionary army. Today, it’s the peace and quiet that appeals, with the village’s old stone houses fanning out from the most pleasant of main squares.

Arrival and departure: Lo

By bus Buses pull in on the Oude Eiermarkt, footsteps from Lo’s main square, the Markt.

Destinations Ieper (Mon–Fri 4 daily; 35min); Veurne (Mon–Fri 4 daily; 25min).

Accommodation

Hotel Stadhuis Markt 1 058 28 80 16, stadhuis-lo.be. Right in the centre of the village, the old town hall – a much-modified sixteenth-century structure with a slender tower – has been converted into a small, two-star hotel. Its handful of bedrooms are neat, trim and comfortable, and the traditional ground-floor restaurant serves good-quality Flemish food in pleasant surroundings; mains cost around €22. €70

< Back to Flanders

Diksmuide

DIKSMUIDE, a pleasant little town about halfway between Ieper and Ostend, sits on the east bank of the River Ijzer – which turned out to be a particularly unfortunate location in World War I. In 1914, the German offensive across Belgium came to a grinding halt when it reached the river, which then formed the front line for the next four years. As a result, Diksmuide was literally shelled to pieces, so much so that by 1918 its location could only be identified from a map. Painstakingly rebuilt in the 1920s, the reconstruction works best in the Grote Markt, an attractive, spacious square flanked by a handsome set of brick gables in traditional Flemish style. Presiding over the square is a statue of a heroic-looking Colonel Jacques (1858–1928), a Belgian commander who did a great deal to delay the German advance of 1914 – and was subsequently made a baron as his reward. The Grote Markt is also within easy striking distance of two prime World War I sites, the Ijzertoren, a ten-minute walk away, and the Dodengang, 2km or so outside the town.

The Ijzertoren

Ijzerdijk • April–Sept Mon–Fri 9am–6pm, Sat & Sun 10am–6pm; Oct–March Mon–Fri 9am–5pm, Sat & Sun 10am–5pm • €8 • 051 50 02 86, museumaandeijzer.be • On the west bank of the River Ijzer, a 10min walk from the Grote Markt via General Baron Jacquesstraat & Ijzerlaan

The domineering, 84m-high Ijzertoren is a massive war memorial and museum that rises high above the River Ijzer. The present structure, a brooding affair dating from the 1950s, bears the letters AVV-VVK – Alles voor Vlaanderen (“All for Flanders”) and Vlaanderen voor Kristus (“Flanders for Christ”) – in a heady mix of religion and nationalism. The tower is actually the second version: the original, erected in 1930, was blown up in mysterious circumstances in 1946. Belgium’s French-speakers usually blame Flemish Fascists disappointed at the defeat of Hitler for its destruction, while the Flemings accuse French-speaking leftists, who allegedly took offence at the avowedly Flemish character of the memorial. In front of the Ijzertoren are a few incidental memorials, principally the Pax gateway of 1950, built of rubble from the original tower, a crypt holding the gravestones of a number of Belgian soldiers and a new and rather incongruous 20m-long segment of replica World War I trench.

Museum aan de Ijzer

Inside the Ijzertoren, lifts whisk visitors up to the top, from where there are grand views out across West Flanders, and this is also where you start a visit to the Museum aan de Ijzer, one of the province’s best war museums spread over a number of floors, each getting larger as you descend the tapering tower. The museum begins with a good section on the build-up to World War I and thereafter traces the course of the war with particular reference to the Belgian army. Included are a couple of re-created trenches – and very convincing they are too – as well as a number of mini-sections on the likes of gas and gas masks, trench communications and subterranean warfare. There’s also an excellent section on the atrocities committed by the Germans during the invasion of 1914 and another on the unequal treatment dished out to the Flemings by the Belgian army’s Francophone officer class. A later section explains how the original Ijzertoren became a focus of Flemish nationalism in the 1930s and even during World War II, when many members of the Flemish Nationalist Movement collaborated with the Germans; several of its leaders, most notably August Borms, were shot for their treachery after the war’s end.

The Dodengang

Ijzerdijk 65, 1.5km north of the Ijzertoren • April to mid-Nov daily 10am–6pm; mid-Nov to March Tues & Fri 9.30am–4pm • €4 • 051 79 30 50, tourism.diksmuide.be

There’s a second reminder of World War I to the north of the Ijzertoren along the west bank of the river. The Dodengang (“Trench of Death”) was an especially dangerous slice of trench that was held by the Belgians throughout the war. Around 400m of trench are viewable, and although the original sandbags have, of necessity, been replaced by concrete imitations, it’s all very well done – and the attached museum fills in the military background.

Arrival and information: Diksmuide

By train & bus Diksmuide’s train station is a 5min walk from the Grote Markt along L-shaped Stationsstraat; the bus station is adjacent.

Destinations by train De Panne (hourly; 20min); Ghent (hourly; 50min); Veurne (hourly; 10min).

Destinations by bus Ieper (Mon–Fri 6 daily, Sat 4 daily; 50min); Ostend (Mon–Fri hourly, Sat & Sun every 2hr; 50min).

Tourist information Diksmuide’s revamped and enlarged tourist office is at Grote Markt 6 (April–Sept daily 9am–5pm; Oct–March Mon–Sat 10am–noon & 1–4pm; 051 79 30 50, tourism.diksmuide.be).

Accommodation and eating

Bloom Grote Markt 8 051 50 29 05, bloom-diksmuide.be. This combined café, restaurant and bar is a convivial place with smart, modern decor and a pavement terrace that fills up fast at weekends. The menu covers all the Flemish classics with mains averaging €22, but the house speciality is its fondues (€25). Mon & Wed–Sun 8am–11pm.

Fijnbakkerij Vandooren Grote Markt 17 051 50 01 84, fijnbakkerijvandooren.be. Cheerful modern café where the coffee is good and the cakes are better – try the mousses. Mon & Sun 7am–3pm, Wed–Sat 7am–6.30pm.

De Groote Waere Vladslostraat 21 0477 24 19 38, degrootewaere.be. Easily the best accommodation hereabouts, this top-notch B&B is located on a farm about 4.5km from Diksmuide. Breakfast is served in the attractively modernized farmhouse, and the barnlike annexe behind holds several comfortable, modern rooms with all mod cons. To get there, drive east from Diksmuide on the N35, take the Vladslo turning and it’s beside the road on the left. €80

< Back to Flanders

Ieper and around

Engaging IEPER, about 30km southeast of Veurne, is one of the most interesting towns in Flanders, a calm and well-composed sort of place, whose expansive main square is distinguished by the haughty reminders of its medieval heyday as a centre of the cloth trade. Initial appearances are, however, deceptive, for all the ‘old’ buildings in the centre were built from scratch after World War I, when Ieper – or Ypres as it was then known –was shelled to smithereens, the reconstruction a tribute to the determination of the town’s citizens. Today, with its clutch of good-quality restaurants and hotels, Ieper is an enjoyable place to spend a night or two, especially if you’re planning on exploring the assorted World War I cemeteries, monuments and memorials that speckle the town and its environs, the most famous of which are the In Flanders Fields Museum, the Menin Gate and Tyne Cot.

Brief history

Ieper’s long and troubled history dates back to the tenth century when it was founded at the point where the Bruges–Paris trade route crossed the River Ieperlee. Success came quickly and the town became a major player in the cloth trade, its thirteenth-century population of some 200,000 sharing economic control of the region with rivals Ghent and Bruges. Ypres was, however, the most precariously sited of the great Flemish cities, much too near the French frontier for comfort and too strategically important to be ignored by any of the armies whose campaigns crisscrossed the town’s surroundings with depressing frequency. The city governors kept disaster at bay by reinforcing their defences and switching allegiances whenever necessary, fighting against the French at the Battle of the Golden Spurs in 1302, and with them forty years later at Roosebeke. The first major misjudgement came in 1383 when Ypres allied itself with France against Bruges, Ghent and an English army. Ypres was besieged for two long months and, although a French army finally appeared to save the day, the damage was done. Ypres never recovered and, unable to challenge its two main competitors again, many of its weavers upped sticks and migrated. The process of depopulation proved irreversible, and by the sixteenth century the town had shrunk to a mere five thousand inhabitants.

World War I and after

In World War I, the first German thrust of 1914 left a bulge in the Allied line to the immediate east of Ypres. This Salient preoccupied the generals of both sides and during the next four years a series of bloody and particularly futile offensives attempted to break the stalemate – with disastrous consequences for Ypres, which served as the Allied communications centre. Comfortably within range of the German artillery, Ypres was rapidly reduced to rubble and its inhabitants were evacuated in 1915. After the war, the returning population decided to rebuild their town, a twenty-year project in which the most prominent medieval buildings – primarily the old cloth hall (the Lakenhalle) and the cathedral – were meticulously reconstructed. The end result must once have seemed strangely antiseptic – old-style edifices with no signs of decay or erosion – but now, after a century or so, the brickwork has mellowed and the centre looks authentically antique and really rather handsome.

Lakenhalle

Grote Markt

A monument to the power and wealth of the medieval guilds, the magnificent Lakenhalle (Cloth Hall) dominates the Grote Markt, its long line of doors and pointed windows framed by a mighty, soaring belfry. The building is a modern structure, a 1930s copy of the thirteenth-century original, though today many of the wooden doors that originally led into the selling halls lead nowhere in particular. The other major change from medieval times – though this happened long before the war – is at the west end of the building, where boats once sailed up the River Ieperlee to unload their cargoes until, that is, the river was vaulted to flow underground.

FELINE TERRORS

During winter, wool was stored on the upper floor of the Lakenhalle and cats were brought in to keep the mice down. The cats may have had a good time in winter, but they couldn’t have relished the prospect of spring, when they were thrown out of the windows to a hostile crowd below as part of the Kattenstoet or Cats’ Festival (www.kattenstoet.be), the slaughter intended to symbolize the killing of evil spirits. The festival ran right up until 1817 and was revived in 1938, when the cats were (mercifully) replaced by cloth imitations. Since then it’s developed into Ieper’s principal shindig, held every three years on the second Sunday in May – the next one is in 2018. The main event is the parade – a large-scale celebration of all things catty, complete with dancers and bands and some of the biggest models and puppets imaginable.

In Flanders Fields Museum

Lakenhalle, Grote Markt • April to mid-Nov daily 10am–6pm; mid-Nov to March Tues–Sun 10am–5pm • €9, plus €2 for belfry • 057 23 92 20, inflandersfields.be

Inside the Lakenhalle, the outstanding In Flanders Fields Museum focuses on the experiences of those caught up in the war rather than the ebb and flow of the military campaigns, though these are sketched in too. At the start, there is an excellent introduction to the origins of the war, followed by a detailed section on the German invasion of Belgium in 1914, describing the damage the invaders inflicted and the atrocities they committed. Thereafter, the museum outlines the creation of the Ypres Salient and the gruesome nature of trench warfare with discrete subsections on, for example, the evolution of mortars, the use of gas and tunnelling. Taken as a whole, the exhibits are wide-ranging and thoughtful, and the multilingual quotations well chosen, but above all it’s the photographs that steal the show: soldiers grimly digging trenches; the pathetic casualties of a gas attack; flyblown corpses in the mud; and panoramas of a blasted landscape. From the museum, you can also clamber up to the top of the adjoining belfry for the panoramic views.

The Nieuwerck

At its eastern end, the Lakenhalle is attached to the Nieuwerck, a fancy, pirouetting structure whose slender arches and gables were constructed in 1622 – though what you see today is a 1930s replica. The Nieuwerck began life as a customs and shipping control house, but is about to be turned into a museum tracing the history of Ieper.

St-Maartenskathedraal

St-Maartensplein • Daily 9am–noon & 2–6pm except during services • Free

To the rear of the Lakenhalle rises St-Maartenskathedraal, a 1920s copy of the thirteenth-century Gothic original. The church’s cavernous nave is a formal, rather bland affair, but the rose window above the door in the south transept is a fine tribute to King Albert I of Belgium, its yellow, green, red and blue stained glass the gift of the British armed forces. Some of the British may have envied the Belgians their commander: realizing that offensives always resulted in heavy casualties, Albert repeatedly refused requests to lend his men to the French and the British when they were launching major attacks and, as a result, Belgian losses were by percentage far fewer than those of her main allies.

St George’s Memorial Church

Elverdingsestraat 1 • Daily 9am–6pm • Free • stgeorgesmemorialchurchypres.com

Just to the northwest of the cathedral is the Anglican St George’s Memorial Church, a modest brick building finished in 1929. The interior is crowded with brass plaques honouring the dead of many British regiments, and almost all the chairs carry individual and regimental tributes. It’s hard not to be moved, for there’s nothing vainglorious in this public space, so consumed as it is with private grief.

Ypres Reservoir Cemetery

Plumerlaan • Open access • Free

From St George’s, it’s a brief walk to the silent graves of the Ypres Reservoir Cemetery, laid out to a pre-ordained plan and one of two British Commonwealth graveyards in the town centre. In use from 1915 onwards, just over 2500 men are buried here, though only half were identified. Many were brought in from the Salient to die of their wounds in field hospitals, but others were killed in the town itself. Among the latter were sixteen men of the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, who were billeted in the vaults of the cathedral when they were interred by a giant, long-range German shell: they were not the only ones to be killed by what the soldiers grimly called the “Ypres Express”. Here also are three graves of men shot at dawn for desertion by British firing squad – Ernest Lawrence, Charles Frederick McColl and Thomas Moles.

Menin Gate

East of the Grote Markt, the massive Menin Gate war memorial was built on the site of the old Menenpoort, which served as the main route for British soldiers heading for the front. It’s a simple, brooding monument, towering over the edge of the town, its walls covered with the names of those fifty thousand British and Empire troops who died in the Ypres Salient but have no grave. The simple inscription above the lists of the dead has none of the arrogance of the victor, but rather a sense of great loss. Nevertheless, the self-justifying formality of the memorial did offend many veterans and prompted a bitter verse from Siegfried Sassoon:

Was ever an immolation so belied

As these intolerably nameless names?

Well might the Dead who struggled in slime

Rise and deride this sepulchre of crime.

Volunteers from the local fire brigade sound the Last Post beneath the gate each and every evening at 8pm. Sometimes it’s an extremely moving ceremony, especially when the fire brigade is joined by other bands, but at other times it’s noisy and really rather crass with scores of school children milling around.

The ramparts

Curiously, the seventeenth-century brick and earthen ramparts on either side of the Menin Gate were strong enough to survive World War I in good condition – the vaults even served as some of the safest bunkers on the front. These massive ramparts and their protective moat still extend right round the east and south of the town centre, and a pleasant footpath runs along the top amidst mature horse-chestnut trees to a second British Commonwealth graveyard, the small and very quiet Ramparts Cemetery, which slopes down towards the old moat.

Arrival and information: Ieper

By train Ieper train station stands on the western edge of the centre, a 10min walk from the Grote Markt.

Destinations Ghent (hourly; 1hr); Kortrijk (hourly; 30min); Poperinge (hourly; 7min).

By bus Ieper bus station is next door to the train station.

Destinations Diksmuide (Mon–Fri 6 daily, Sat 4 daily; 50min); Veurne (Mon–Fri 4 daily; 1hr).

Tourist information The helpful and efficient tourist office is in the Lakenhalle on the Grote Markt (April to mid-Nov Mon–Fri 9am–6pm, Sat & Sun 10am–6pm; mid-Nov to March Mon–Fri 9am–5pm, Sat & Sun 10am–5pm; 057 23 92 20, www.toerisme-ieper.be). The attached shop has booklets and leaflets describing various car and cycle routes around the Salient and also sells a first-rate range of books on World War I.

getting around

By bike There are no fewer than six bike rental outlets in Ieper – tourist information has the full list. One handy option is Chez Marie, opposite the Lakenhalle at Neermarkt 6 (Mon & Wed–Sat 9.30am–6.30pm; Sun 10.30am–6pm; 057 20 02 06, chezmarie-ieper.weebly.com). They charge €15 per day for a standard-issue bike plus deposit.

By car There are no major car rental companies in Ieper, but tourist information has details of local suppliers.

By taxi There are several taxi firms; Taxi Kurt (057 36 09 00, taxikurt.com) is very reliable.

Accommodation

Tourist information’s website (www.toerisme-ieper.be) has comprehensive accommodation listings. There are nearly thirty B&Bs, though the majority are out in the sticks, whereas most of Ieper’s hotels are in the centre; there’s a handily located campsite too. During the centenary commemorations for World War I (2014–2018), advance reservations are strongly advised – and don’t be amazed if prices are jacked up.

Albion Hotel St-Jacobsstraat 28 057 20 02 20, albionhotel.be; map. Very appealing three-star hotel with eighteen large and well-appointed en-suite guest rooms decorated in a spick-and-span, unfussy modern style. The public areas are commodious, the breakfasts are good, and it’s in a handy location, a brief stroll from the Grote Markt. €120

Ariane Slachthuisstraat 58 057 21 82 18, ariane.be; map. A prim and proper garden with a water fountain and pond flanks this ultramodern four-star hotel, which occupies a secluded location, a 5min walk north of the Grote Markt. The fifty en-suite rooms are large, well appointed and very comfortable. €140

Hortensia B&B Rijselstraat 196 0473 84 84 07, bbhortensia.be; map. A stone’s throw from one of the old town gates, this 1920s terrace house has been pleasantly re-equipped to accommodate a six-bedroom B&B. The rooms are all en suite and decorated in a fetching manner with wooden floors and neat furnishings. €80

Jeugstadion Ieper Bolwerkstraat 1, off Karel Steverlyncklaan 057 21 72 82, jeugdstadion.be; map. Small campsite in a leafy location across the canal from the southeast end of town – and a 25min walk from the train station. There’s bike rental, 70 tent pitches, 22 tent and vehicle pitches, and three hikers’ huts. March to mid-Nov. Camping €20, hikers’ huts €37

Novotel Ieper Centrum St-Jacobsstraat 15 057 42 96 00, novotel.com; map. The building itself might be a bit of a modern bruiser, but the interior is surprisingly swish and the hundred-odd rooms are all comfortably modern in true Novotel style. Fitness facilities and a sauna, too. €130

La Porte Cochere Paterstraat 22 057 20 50 22, laportecochere.com; map. In a pleasant location near the Grote Markt, this charming B&B occupies a handsome, three-storey house with grand double doors and a fancy fanlight. Has three comfortable bedrooms with period touches. €110

Eating

Capella Kiekenmarkt 7 057 36 61 32, restaurantcapella.be; map. This attractive restaurant, one of Ieper’s best, has a charmingly idiosyncratic appearance, from the gold-sprayed posts to the dinky chandeliers. The menu is not overly extensive, but it does cover all the Flemish classics and then some – try, for example, the brill in white wine sauce (€28). Outside terrace too. Wed–Fri & Sun noon–2pm & 6–8.30pm, Sat 6–9pm.

‘t Leetvermaak Eetkaffée Korte Meersstraat 2 057 21 63 85, leetvermaak.be; map. Excellent café-restaurant with a cosy interior and a smooth, jazzy soundtrack. The cuisine is largely Flemish, with a sprinkling of Italian and Spanish/Portuguese dishes adding interest. Mains hover around €20. Cultural events are staged here too. Tues–Thurs & Sat 5–11pm, Fri & Sun 11am–2pm & 5–11pm.

Pacific Eiland Eiland 2 057 20 05 28, pacificeiland.be; map. In a superb wooded setting, flanked by the old city moat, this popular café-restaurant has a wide-ranging – perhaps too wide-ranging – menu featuring such delights as Norwegian smoked salmon and a mixed fish grill. A two-course menu du jour costs a very reasonable €17. Mon noon–2.30pm, Wed–Sun noon–2.30pm & 6–9pm.

De Ruyffelaer Gustave de Stuersstraat 11 057 36 60 06, www.deruyffelaer.be; map. This homely, weekends-only restaurant is kitted out with all sorts of local trinkets and offers delicious home-made food, with Flemish dishes uppermost – the stews are outstanding. Mains average €16. Wash it down with Hommel, the tangy local ale from the neighbouring town of Poperinge. Fri & Sat 5.30–9pm, Sun 11.30am–2 & 5.30–9pm.

The Ypres Salient

Immediately to the east of Ieper, the Ypres Salient occupies a basin-shaped parcel of land about 25km long, and never more than 15km deep. For the commanders of World War I, the area’s key feature was the long and low sequence of ridges that sweeps south from the hamlet of Langemark to the French border. These gave the occupants a clear view of Ieper and its surroundings, and consequently the British and Germans spent the war trying to capture and keep them. The dips and sloping ridges that were then so vitally important are still much in evidence today, but the tranquillity of the landscape makes it difficult to imagine what the war was actually like. Most of what remains today – concrete pill boxes, craters from exploded mines, even the occasional segment of (restored) trench – only hint at what happened here, though three recently opened Salient ‘Entry Points’ – of which Entry Point South is the most convincing – make a gallant attempt to remedy matters. Each concentrates on the war as it evolved in their locality.

The British Commonwealth War Cemeteries

Across the Salient, the most resonant reminders of the blood-letting are the 160 or so British Commonwealth War Cemeteries that dot the landscape, each immaculately maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Every cemetery, including the most famous, Tyne Cot, has a Cross of Sacrifice in white Portland stone, and the larger ones also have a sarcophagus-like Stone of Remembrance bearing the legend “Their Name Liveth For Ever More”, a quotation selected by Rudyard Kipling from Ecclesiasticus. The graves line up at precisely spaced intervals and, wherever possible, headstones bear the individual’s name, rank, serial number, age and date of death, plus the badge of the relevant military unit or a national emblem, an appropriate religious symbol and, at the base, an inscription chosen by relatives. All the graves are numbered and at each cemetery a registry book is kept in an alcove at the entrance recording alphabetically who is buried where – if, of course, the remains have been identified: thousands of gravestones do not carry any or all of these tags as the bodies were buried without anyone knowing who they were. If you are looking for the grave of someone in particular, consult the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s excellent website (www.cwgc.org).

getting around: Ypres Salient

By car or bike There’s no way you can explore the Ypres Salient by public transport, though there are guided tours. The best bet is by car or cycle – and the sites we have described below are both the pick of the bunch and described in geographical order; all together they comprise a comfortable, day-long tour. Note, however, there are no car hire companies in Ieper.

information and tours

Information and maps Ieper tourist information has a wide range of leaflets and booklets outlining cycling and driving tours of the Salient. They also have detailed brochures on their three ‘Entry Points’ – South, North and East.

Guided tours Guided tours of the Salient beginning in Ieper are provided by Flanders Battlefield Tours (057 36 04 60, ypres-fbt.com), which offers 4hr and 2.5hr trips for €38 and €30 respectively. For tours of the Salient beginning in Bruges, check out Quasimodo.

Essex Farm Cemetery

Diksmuidseweg, 8900 Ieper • Open access • Free • 3km north of Ieper along the N369 (to Diksmuide), just beyond the flyover.

Essex Farm Cemetery is where the dead were brought from the neighbouring battlefield. In the bank behind and to the left of the cemetery’s Cross of Sacrifice are the remains of several British bunkers, part of a combined forward position and first-aid post dug into the west side of the canal. It was here that the Canadian John McCrae wrote the war’s best-known poem, In Flanders Fields:

. . . We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunsets glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields . . .

Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof

Klerkenstraat, 8920 Langemark • Open access • Free • About 9km northeast of Essex Farm

On the northern edge of the hamlet of LANGEMARK is the Salient’s only German war cemetery, the Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof. Nearly 45,000 German soldiers are buried here, mostly in communal graves, but others are interred in groups of eight with stone plaques above each tomb carrying the names of the dead (where known). The entrance gate is a squat neo-Romanesque structure, whose style is continued by the basalt crosses dotting the rest of the site, and overlooking it all is a sad and moving bronze of four mourning soldiers by the Munich sculptor Emil Krieger.

Tyne Cot

Vijfwegestraat, 8980 Zonnebeke • Open access; visitor centre daily 10am–6pm • Free • About 8km from Deutscher Soldatenfriedhof

Tyne Cot is the largest British Commonwealth war cemetery in the world, containing no fewer than 11,956 graves as well as the so-called Memorial to the Missing, a semicircular wall inscribed with the names of a further 35,000 men whose bodies were never recovered. The soldiers of a Northumbrian division gave the place its name, observing, as they tried to fight their way up the ridge, that the Flemish house on the horizon looked like a Tyneside cottage. The house disappeared during the war, but the largest of the concrete pillboxes the Germans built to defend the ridge has survived, incorporated within the mound beneath the Cross of Sacrifice at the suggestion of George V – you can still see a piece of it where a slab of stone has been deliberately omitted. Strangely, the Memorial to the Missing at the back of the cemetery wasn’t part of the original design: the intention was that these names be recorded on the Menin Gate, but there was not enough room. Beside the car park, the visitor centre gives further background information and displays a selection of World War I photos.

Passendale

About 1km from Tyne Cot

Tyne Cot cemetery overlooks the shallow valley that gently shelves up to the hamlet of PASSENDALE, known then as Passchendaele. This village was the British objective in the Third Battle of Ypres, but torrential rain and intensive shelling turned the valley into a giant quagmire. The whole affair came to symbolize the futility of the war and the incompetence of its generals: when Field-Marshal Haig’s Chief of Staff ventured out of his HQ to inspect progress, he allegedly said, “Good God, did we really send men to fight in that?”

Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917

Berten Pilstraat 5, 8980 Zonnebeke • Daily 9am–6pm • €10.50 • 051 77 04 41, passchendaele.be • About 4.5km southwest of Passendale

Beside the main road in the middle of Zonnebeke, and occupying a nineteenth-century château and its grounds, is the Memorial Museum Passchendaele 1917, with the region’s largest collection of World War I artefacts. Displays are focused on the Third Battle of Ypres, illustrating this desperately futile conflict with photos, military hardware and reconstructions of a trench and a dugout.

pointless slaughter: The Ypres Salient

The creation of the Ypres Salient was entirely accidental. When the German army invaded Belgium and thereby launched the war in the west, they were following the military principles laid down by a previous chief of the German General Staff, Alfred von Schlieffen, who had died eight years earlier. The idea was simple: to avoid fighting a war on two fronts, the German army would outflank the French and capture Paris by attacking through Belgium, well before the Russians had assembled on the eastern frontier. But it didn’t work, with the result that as the initial German offensive ground to a halt, so two lines of opposing trenches were dug and these soon stretched from the North Sea to Switzerland.

No one knew quite what to do next, but attention focused on the two main bulges – or salients – in the line, one at Ieper, the other at Verdun in France. To the Allied generals, the bulge at Ieper – the Ypres Salient – was a good place to puncture the German lines and roll up their front; to the Germans it represented an ideal opportunity to break the deadlock by attacking enemy positions from several sides at the same time. Contemporary military doctrine on both sides held that the way to win a war was to destroy the enemy’s strongest forces first – a theory based on cavalry tactics, where a charge that broke the enemy’s key formations brought victory. The consequence of this tactical similitude was that the salients attracted armies like magnets, but the problem was that technological changes had shifted the balance of war in favour of defence: machine guns had become more efficient, barbed wire more effective and the railways could shift defensive reserves faster than an advancing army could march. Another issue was supply. These vast armies couldn’t live off the land, and once they advanced much beyond the reach of the railways, the supply problems were enormous. As the historian A.J.P. Taylor succinctly put it, “Defence was mechanized; attack was not.”

The generals had no answer to the stalemate, but demonstrated an amazing profligacy with the lives of their men - the British commander, Douglas Haig, even proposing a war of attrition in which Germany was bled to death, never mind the casualties on his own side. It’s true there were tactical innovations as the war progressed, but these were very limited, and indeed two of the new techniques – gas attack and a heavy preliminary bombardment – often made matters worse. The shells forewarned the enemy of an offensive and churned the trenches into a muddy maelstrom where men, horses and machinery were simply engulfed; the gas was as dangerous to the advancing soldiers as it was to the retreating enemy. Tanks proved to be successful, but only on relatively good ground, and although explosive-packed mines were used to great effect, they were extraordinarily costly and time consuming.

This was the background to the four years of war that raged in and around the Ypres Salient, producing four major battles. The first, in October and November of 1914, settled the lines of the bulge as both armies tried to outflank each other; and the second was a German attack the following spring that moved the trenches a couple of kilometres west. The third, launched by British Empire soldiers in July 1917, was even more pointless, with thousands of men dying for an advance of only a few kilometres. It’s frequently called the Battle of Passchendaele, but Lloyd George more accurately referred to it as the “battle of the mud”, a disaster that cost 250,000 British lives. The fourth and final battle, in April 1918, was another German attack inspired by General Ludendorff’s desire to break the British army. Instead it broke his own, leading to the November 11 Armistice.

clockwise from top Menin Gate, Ieper ; St-Baafskathedraal, Ghent ; Design Museum, Ghent

Ypres Salient: Entry Point South (The Bluff)

Palingbeekstraat, 8902 Zillebeke • Open access • Free • About 8km southwest of the Memorial Museum

Of the three, recently created ‘Entry Points’ to the Salient, Entry Point South is the most diverting. A small pavilion at the entrance features a short (15min) film on the military comings and goings on this part of the Front. Afterwards, a clearly marked, 4km-long hiking trail follows the line of the trenches, taking in The Bluff, the much-mined Hill 60 and Caterpillar Crater. You’ll need a lively imagination to conceive of exactly what went on and where, but it’s still a good way to understand the war, and information plaques will help you on your way.

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Poperinge

Execution place Guido Gezellestraat 1 • Daily 6am–10pm • Free

Flanked and fringed by hop fields, small-town POPERINGE, just 12km west of Ieper, has one major claim to fame – it managed to escape the German occupation of World War I. It was also out of range of all but the largest of German guns and so it was here that thousands of British and Empire soldiers licked their wounds – both physical and mental. Many found solace at the Talbot House, but Poperinge had a darker side too, for it was here that many soldiers were court-martialled for a variety of offences from cowardice and desertion through to insubordination. A few were shot at dawn and, at the back of the Stadhuis, just off the Grote Markt, the cells where the condemned were incarcerated have been restored as has the adjacent execution place, complete with a replica of the wooden stake to which they condemned men were tied.

Talbot House Museum

Gasthuisstraat 43 • Tues–Sun 10am–5.30pm • €8 • 057 33 32 28, talbothouse.be

In late 1915, Philip (‘Tubby’) Clayton, a British army chaplain, played a key role in establishing the Talbot House as a rest and recreation centre for soldiers from the Front. Unusually, it was open to all ranks and consequently it soon became known as the Every Man’s Club. Hundreds found comfort here in simple pleasures – sing-alongs and prayer – and after the war Clayton pioneered Toc H, an international Christian movement for peace and reconciliation named after Talbot House – ‘Toc’ being ‘T’ in the signals alphabet of the time. Today, Talbot House looks something like it did in World War I – even the simple chapel in the loft has survived – and it’s attached to a small war museum, which holds a series of intriguing displays on, for example, the exploitation of Chinese coolies, Tubby Clayton, R&R and the war in the air.

Arrival and departure: poperinge

By train Poperinge train station is an 8min walk from the Grote Markt – straight down Ieperstraat.

Destinations Ieper (hourly; 7min); Kortrijk (hourly; 40min).

Accommodation

Talbot House Gasthuisstraat 43 057 33 32 28, talbothouse.be. This distinctive, one-star guesthouse, in what was once the Every Man’s Club, has seven cosy guest rooms decorated in appropriate period style – and with war art on the walls. Each room has its own washbasin, but other facilities are shared. €86

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Kortrijk

KORTRIJK (Courtrai in French), just 8km from the French border, is the largest town in this part of West Flanders, a lively, busy sort of place with a couple of excellent hotels, several good places to eat and a smattering of distinguished medieval buildings. The town traces its origins back to a Roman settlement called Cortoriacum, but its salad days were in the Middle Ages when its burghers made a fortune producing linen and flax. The problem was its location: Kortrijk was just too close to France for comfort, and time and again the town was embroiled in the wars that swept across Flanders – the landmark Broeltorens, the pair of conical towers that guard the River Leie today, witness this troubled history.

The Grote Markt

Heavily bombed during World War II, Kortrijk’s Grote Markt is a comely but architecturally incoherent mixture of bits of the old and a lot of the new, surrounding the forlorn, turreted Belfort – all that remains of what was once a splendid medieval cloth hall. At the northwest corner of the Grote Markt stands the Stadhuis, a sedate edifice with modern statues of the counts of Flanders on the facade. Inside, through the side entrance on the left, things pick up in the Historisch Stadhuis (July & Aug Tues, Thurs, Sat & Sun 3–5pm; free) with two fine sixteenth-century chimneypieces. The first is in the old Schepenzaal (Aldermen’s Room) on the ground floor, a proud, intricate work decorated with municipal coats of arms and carvings of bishops, saints and the Archdukes Albert and Isabella of Spain; the other, upstairs in the Raadzaal (Council Chamber), is a more didactic affair, ornamented by three rows of precise statuettes representing, from top to bottom, the virtues, the vices (to either side of the Emperor Charles V) and the torments of hell.

St-Maartenskerk

St-Maartenskerkstraat • Mon–Fri 7.30am–6pm, Sat & Sun 10am–6pm, but closed to visitors during services • Free

Just off the Grote Markt rises the heavyweight tower of St-Maartenskerk, whose gleaming white-stone exterior, dating from the fifteenth century, is distinguished by its slender, artichoke spire. The outside of the church may be handsome, but the cavernous interior is a yawn with the exception of the intricately carved, 6.5m-high tabernacle tucked away among the columns of the nave near the high altar and dated to the sixteenth century.

Begijnhof

Begijnhofstraat • Daily 7am–8pm, till 9pm in summer • Free

Founded in 1238 by Joanna of Constantinople, the Countess of Flanders, the Begijnhof is an especially pretty corner of Kortrijk, its huddle of ancient whitewashed cottages flanking a network of narrow cobbled lanes. It’s the general appearance of the Begijnhof that is its charm, but you can pop into the chapel (Tues–Sun 10am–5pm; free), whose cream-painted walls are adorned by the most mawkish of religious paintings.

Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk

Deken Zegerplein • Mon–Fri 8am–6pm, Sat 9am–6pm, Sun 11am–6pm • Free

The Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk (Church of Our Lady) is a hulking grey structure that formerly doubled as part of the city’s fortifications. In July 1302, the nave of the church was crammed with hundreds of spurs, ripped off the feet of dead and dying French knights at the Battle of the Golden Spurs, one of the most important military engagements of the period. These plundered spurs were all that remained of the army that Philip the Fair had sent to avenge the slaughter of the Bruges Matins earlier that year. The two armies, Philip’s heavily armoured cavalry and the lightly armed Flemish weavers, had met outside Kortrijk on marshy ground. Despising their low-born adversaries, the French knights made no reconnaissance and ended up milling around in the mud like cumbersome dinosaurs. They were massacred, the first time an amateur civilian army had defeated professional mail-clad knights.

The interior

The spurs disappeared long ago and today the church’s interior is a medley of styles, from the Gothic and the Baroque through to the Neoclassical. The gloomy and truncated north transept holds one splendid painting, Anthony van Dyck’s Raising of the Cross, a muscular, sweeping work with a pale, deathly Christ, completed just before the artist went to England. Across the church, the Counts’ Chapel has an unusual series of somewhat crude nineteenth-century portraits painted into the wall niches, but the highlight is a sensuous medieval alabaster statue of St Catherine, her left hand clutching a representation of the spiked wheel on which her enemies tried to break her (hence the “Catherine wheel” firework).

Kortrijk 1302

Begijnhofpark, above tourist information • May–Sept Tues–Sun 10am–6pm; Oct–April Tues–Sun 10am–5pm • €6 • 056 27 78 50, kortrijk1302.be

Hammering home the importance of the Battle of the Golden Spurs, the town’s leading museum, Kortrijk 1302, provides a detailed account of the engagement and its historical context, culminating in a short feature film. Also on display are a number of original artefacts, most memorably the metal tips of the long pikes carried by the Flemings. This weapon was crucial to the success of the guildsmen who, with true gallows humour, named it the Goedendag (Good Day) because the French knights had to nod their heads when the pike was aimed at one of their weak spots – the gap between their helmet and breastplate. A later section explores the way in which the battle served as propaganda: Flemish nationalists trumpeted the success of their forebears and the French tried to gainsay their defeat by alleging that the Flemings disguised the marshy ground with brushwood – almost certainly untrue.

Arrival and information: Kortrijk

By train Kortrijk train station – and adjacent bus station – is a 5min walk from the Grote Markt.

Destinations Brussels (every 30min; 1hr 10min); Ghent (every 30min; 20min); Ieper (hourly; 30min); Oudenaarde (every 30min; 15min); Poperinge (hourly; 40min).

Tourist information Begijnhofpark, above Kortrijk 1302 (May–Sept Mon–Fri 10am–6pm, Sat & Sun 10am–5pm; Oct–April daily 10am–5pm; 056 27 78 40, toerismekortrijk.be).

Accommodation

Center Hotel Graanmarkt 6 056 21 97 21, centerhotel.be; map. Medium-sized three-star hotel occupying a six-storey modern block in a handy location near the Grote Markt. There’s nothing fancy about the rooms, but they’re comfortable and each is kitted out in a brisk, minimalist manner. €80

Damier Grote Markt 41 056 22 15 47, hoteldamier.be; map. The approach to this hotel – down through the old carriage archway that forms part of the handsome Neoclassical facade – is impressive and it leads to a warm and inviting wood-panelled foyer. The problem is that the rooms beyond are a tad staid, though perfectly adequate. €120

Messeyne Groeningestraat 17 056 21 21 66, hotelmesseyne.be; map. Excellent four-star in a creatively modernized eighteenth-century mansion. There’s a sauna and a health centre, and 28 large, well-appointed rooms, most of which are decorated in fetching creams and browns, some with timber-beam ceilings. €140

Square Hotel Groeningestraat 39 056 28 89 50, hotelmesseyne.be; map. Owned by the Hotel Messeyne, this is their three-star venture, featuring 26 trim, modern rooms designed with visiting business folk in mind. In an attractive location, too. €110

Eating

Heeren van Groeninghe Groeningestraat 36 056 25 40 25, heerenvangroeninghe.be; map. Set in a cleverly revamped eighteenth-century mansion, this popular bistro-style bar and restaurant does a fine line in Flemish and Italian dishes and is also strong on salads. Eat inside or outside on the terrace. Mains from a very reasonable €18. Reservations advised. Thurs & Fri 11.30am–2.30pm & 6–10pm, Sat & Sun 11.30am–10pm.

Nata Grote Markt 4 056 20 12 20, natakortrijk.be; map. Of all the café-bars that line up along the Grote Markt, this is perhaps the best, serving a good selection of Franco-Flemish dishes in bright, modern surroundings. Mains average €20. Daily 8am–9.30pm.

Restaurant Messeyne Groeningestraat 17 056 21 21 66, restaurantmesseyne.be; map. Small and deluxe-meets-bijou restaurant in the Hotel Messeyne. The menu is extremely well chosen and the cuisine French – the jus are particularly delicious. Mains average €34. Mon–Fri noon–2pm & 7–9.30pm.

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Oudenaarde

Hugging the banks of the River Scheldt about 30km to the east of Kortrijk, OUDENAARDE, literally “old landing place”, is a beguiling sort of place, an easy-paced little town with a clutch of fascinating old buildings, a sprinkling of enjoyable bars and restaurants and a museum that features Oudenaarde’s main claim to fame, its tapestries. The town has a long and chequered history. Granted a charter in 1193, it concentrated on cloth manufacture until the early fifteenth century, when its weavers switched to tapestry-making, an industry that made its burghers rich and the town famous, with the best tapestries becoming the prized possessions of the kings of France and Spain. So far so good, but Oudenaarde became a key military objective during the religious and dynastic wars of the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries. Attacked and besieged time and again, Oudenaarde found it impossible to sustain any growth, and the demise of the tapestry industry pauperized the town, rendering it an insignificant backwater in one of the poorest parts of Flanders – until recently, when the canny use of regional development funds has put the spring back in the municipal step.

Tacambaroplein war memorial

On the way into town from the train station, the only surprise is the romantic war memorial occupying the middle of Tacambaroplein. For once it’s nothing to do with either world war, but instead commemorates those who were daft or unscrupulous enough to volunteer to go to Mexico and fight for Maximilian, the Habsburg son-in-law of the Belgian king, Léopold I. Unwanted and unloved, Maximilian was imposed on the Mexicans by a French army provided by Napoleon III, who wanted to create his own western empire while the eyes of the US were averted by the American Civil War. It was, however, all too fanciful and the occupation rapidly turned into a fiasco. Maximilian paid for the adventure with his life in 1867, and precious few of his soldiers made the return trip. The reasons for this calamity seem to have been entirely lost on Maximilian, who declared, in front of the firing squad that was about to polish him off, “Men of my class and lineage are created by God to be the happiness of nations or their martyrs…Long live Mexico, long live independence.”

Stadhuis

Markt • Occasional guided tours; details from tourist information

The airy and expansive Markt at the heart of Oudenaarde is overlooked by the Stadhuis, one of the finest examples of Flamboyant Gothic in the country. Built around 1525, its elegantly symmetrical facade spreads out on either side of a slender central tower, whose extravagant tiers, balconies and parapets are topped by the gilded figure of a knight, Hanske de Krijger (“Little John the Warrior”). Underneath the knight, the cupola is in the shape of a crown, a theme reinforced by the two groups of cherubs on the dormer windows below, who lovingly clutch the royal insignia. Inside, a magnificent oak doorway forms the entrance to the old Schepenzaal (Aldermen’s Hall). A stylistically influential piece of 1531, the doorway consists of an intricate sequence of carvings, surmounted by miniature cherubs who frolic above three coats of arms and a 28-panel door.

MOU

Markt • March–Sept Tues–Fri 9.30am–5.30pm, Sat & Sun 10am–5.30pm; Oct–Feb Tues–Fri 9.30am–5pm, Sat & Sun 2–5pm • €6 • 055 31 72 51, mou-oudenaarde.be

Attached to the back of the Stadhuis, the thirteenth-century Lakenhalle now holds MOU, the town’s principal museum. Spread over several floors, the museum begins with a modest history of Oudenaarde and follows up with a large quantity of silverware, but the main event is a magnificent collection of tapestries, exhibited to fine effect in a capacious, high-ceilinged hall. Among the fifteen tapestries on display, look out for a trio of wonderful, late sixteenth-century, classical pieces celebrating Alexander the Great – Alexander is offered the Crown; Alexander before the high priest Iaddo; and The Army Camp beside the River Granikos. Equally delightful is Scipio and Hannibal, in which the border is decorated with medallions depicting the Seven Wonders of the World – though the Hanging Gardens of Babylon appear twice to create the symmetry. Romanticized pastoral scenes were perennially popular too: the seventeenth-century Landscape with Two Pheasants frames a distant castle with an intricate design of trees and plants, while La Main Chaude (or Pat-a-Cake as it’s labelled here) depicts a game of blind man’s buff.

applied art at its finest: Oudenaarde’s tapestries

Tapestry manufacture in Oudenaarde began in the middle of the fifteenth century, an embryonic industry that soon came to be based on a dual system of workshop and outworker, the one with paid employees, the other with workers paid on a piecework basis. From the beginning, the town authorities took a keen interest in the business, ensuring its success by a rigorous system of quality control, which soon gave Oudenaarde an international reputation for consistently well-made tapestries.

The first great period of the town’s tapestry-making lasted until the middle of the sixteenth century, when religious conflict overwhelmed the town and many of its Protestant-inclined weavers, who had come into direct conflict with their Catholic masters, migrated north. In 1582, Oudenaarde was finally incorporated into the Spanish Netherlands, precipitating a revival of tapestry production fostered by the king and queen of Spain, who were keen to support the industry and passed draconian laws banning the movement of weavers. Later, however, French occupation and the shrinking of the Spanish market led to diminishing production, with the industry finally fizzling out in the late eighteenth century.

There were two significant types of tapestry: decorative – principally verdures, showing scenes of foliage in an almost abstract way (the Oudenaarde speciality) – and pictorial, which were usually variations on the same basic themes, particularly rural life, knights, hunting parties and religious scenes. Over the centuries, changes in style were strictly limited, though the early part of the seventeenth century saw an increased use of elaborate woven borders and an appreciation of perspective.

Standard-size Oudenaarde tapestries took six months to make and were produced exclusively for the very wealthy. The tapestries were normally in yellow, brown, pale blue and shades of green, with an occasional splash of red, though the most important clients would, on occasion, insist on the use of gold and silver thread. Some also insisted on the employment of the most famous artists of the day for the preparatory painting – Pieter Paul Rubens and Jacob Jordaens both completed tapestry commissions.

St-Walburgakerk

Markt • April, May & Oct Tues & Sat 2.30–5pm, Thurs 10–11am & 2.30–5pm; June–Sept Tues, Wed, Fri & Sat 2.30–5pm, Thurs 10am–noon & 2.30–5pm, Sun 2.30–5pm • Free • 055 31 72 51

Soaring high above the town, St-Walburgakerk is a hulking, rambling mass of Gothic masonry that took a real hammering from the Protestants, who trashed almost all the original furnishings and fittings. Nowadays, gaudy Baroque altarpieces dot the yawning interior, but in the choir there are several large, albeit very faded, tapestries, most memorably an exquisite Calvary in which two symbols of Christ’s suffering – a spear and a stick with a sponge – are nailed to the Cross instead of the Christ himself.

Centrum Ronde van Vlaanderen

Markt 43 • Tues–Sun 10am–6pm • €8 • 055 33 99 33, crvv.be

Oudenaarde is home to a noteworthy special interest museum, the Centrum Ronda Van Vlaanderen, with everything you could ever want to know about Belgium’s premier professional cycling competition, the Tour of Flanders, including a film and cycling simulators. Enthusiasts can also drop by the shop, where they sell cycling maps, books and equipment – including retro-style jerseys.

Arrival and Information: Oudenaarde

By train Oudenaarde train station is a 10min walk from the town centre; the bus station is adjacent. Incidentally, the present train station has usurped its neo-Gothic predecessor, which stands lonely and forlorn next door.

Destinations Brussels (every 30min to hourly; 50min); Ghent (Mon–Fri hourly, Sat & Sun every 2hr; 35min); Kortrijk (every 30min; 15min).

Tourist information occupies the same premises as the MOU museum, in the Lakenhalle at the back of the Stadhuis (March–Sept daily 9.30am–5.30pm; Oct–Feb Mon–Fri 9.30am–5pm, Sat & Sun 2–5pm; 055 31 72 51, tov.be).

Getting around

By bike Bike rental is available from Asfra, a short walk southeast of the centre at Bergstraat 75 (055 31 57 40, asfra.be). Tourist information sells cycling maps of the Vlaamse Ardennen (Flemish Ardennes), the ridge of low, wooded hills that rises from the Flanders plain a few kilometres to the south of town.

accommodation

La Pomme d’Or Markt 62 055 31 19 00, pommedor.be; map. In a large and good-looking old building on the main square, this ten-room, three-star hotel offers plain but perfectly adequate, modern rooms. Be sure to try one of their splendid, advocaat-laced cappuccinos in the bar. €80

Steenhuyse Markt 37 055 23 23 73, steenhuyse.be; map. This enjoyable four-star hotel occupies a tastefully modernized eighteenth-century mansion, whose handsome stone facade faces onto the Markt. The seven large and well-appointed rooms come with all mod cons (wi-fi, rainshower etc). €120

Eating

De Cridts Markt 58 055 31 17 78, brasseriedecridts.be; map. Friendly, traditional and family-owned café-restaurant serving standard-issue but tasty Flemish dishes at very reasonable prices – main courses average €19. Mon, Tues & Thurs–Sun 9am–11pm; kitchen open from 11.45am.

Margaretha’s Markt 40 055 21 01 01, margarethas.be; map. Oudenaarde tends to be low-key, so it’s something of a surprise to find this extraordinarily lavish restaurant here, right bang in the centre of town. The place has the appearance of a stately home and the cuisine is very French with due prominence given to local, seasonal ingredients. Set meals are the order of the day for €81, €120 with wine, but less at lunch. Wed–Sun noon–2pm & 7–9pm.

Wine & Dine Café Hoogstraat 34 055 23 96 97, wine-dine.be; map. Nattily decorated café-restaurant offering a good choice of Franco-Flemish food served with style and panache. Fish and meat dishes here cost around €22, salads €18. Tues–Sat noon–2.30pm & 6.30–9.30pm.

drinking

Bieren Roman Hoogstraat 21; map. The local Roman brewery rules the Oudenaarde roost, and this traditional neighbourhood bar is devoted to its products – try, for example, the Tripel Ename, a strong blond beer, or the Roman Dobbelen Bruinen, a snappy filtered stout. Daily 11am–11pm.

De Carillon Markt 49 055 31 14 09, decarillon.be; map. Old-fashioned café-bar that occupies an ancient brick-gabled building in the shadow of St-Walburgakerk. It’s at its best in the summertime, when the large pavement terrace heaves with drinkers (rather than eaters). Tues–Sun 9am–10pm, Thurs 9am–6pm.

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Ghent

Of all the cities in Belgium, it’s hard to trump GHENT, a vital, vibrant metropolis whose booming restaurant and bar scene wends its way across a charming cityscape, comprising a network of narrow canals overseen by dozens of antique red-brick houses. If Bruges is a tourist industry with a town attached, Ghent is the reverse – a proudly Flemish city which, with a population of around 250,000, is now Belgium’s third-largest conurbation. Evidence of Ghent’s medieval pomp is to be found in a string of superb Gothic buildings, most memorably St-Baafskathedraal, whose principal treasure is Jan van Eyck’s remarkable Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, one of the world’s most important paintings. Supporting the cathedral are the likes of St-Niklaaskerk, with its soaring arches and pencil-thin turrets; the forbidding castle of the counts of Flanders, Het Gravensteen; and the delightful medieval guildhouses of the Graslei. These central attractions are supplemented by a trio of outlying museums within comfortable strolling distance of the Korenmarkt: S.M.A.K, an enterprising Museum of Contemporary Art; STAM, the city’s brand-new historical museum; and the fine art of the excellent Museum voor Schone Kunsten (MSK).

CITYCARD ghent

A bargain if you’re set on seeing most of the sights, a CityCard Gent covers all of the key attractions, provides free and unlimited use of the city’s buses and trams and includes a boat trip and a day’s bike rental; it costs €30 for 48hr, €35 for 72hr. It’s on sale at any of the participants as well as from tourist information.

Brief history

The principal seat of the counts of Flanders and one of the largest towns in western Europe during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Ghent was once at the heart of the Flemish cloth trade. By 1350, the city boasted a population of fifty thousand, of whom no fewer than five thousand were directly involved in the industry, a prodigious concentration of labour in a predominantly rural Europe. Like Bruges, Ghent prospered throughout the Middle Ages, but it also suffered from endemic disputes between the count and his nobles (who supported France) and the cloth-reliant citizens (to whom friendship with England was vital). In the early sixteenth century, the relative decline of the cloth trade and the move into export-import did little to ease the underlying tension, as the people of Ghent were still resentful of their ruling class, from whom they were now separated by language – French against Flemish – and religion – Catholic against Protestant. The catalyst for conflict was usually taxation: long before the Revolt of the Netherlands, Ghent’s merchants and artisans found it hard to stomach the financial dictates of their rulers – the Habsburgs after 1482 – and time and again they rose in revolt, only to be crushed and punished. In 1540, for example, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V lost patience and stormed the town, abolishing its privileges, filling in the moat and building a new castle at the city’s expense.

Incorporation within the Spanish Netherlands

In 1584, with the Netherlands well on the way to independence from Habsburg Spain, Philip II’s armies captured Ghent. It was a crucial engagement: thereafter Ghent proved to be too far south to be included in the United Provinces and was reluctantly pressed into the Spanish Netherlands. Many of its citizens fled north, and those who didn’t may well have regretted their decision when the Inquisition arrived grimly bent on hunting down the Protestants and the Dutch forced the Habsburgs to close the River Scheldt, Ghent’s economic lifeline, as the price of peace in 1648.

Nineteenth century till today

In the centuries that followed, Ghent slipped into a slow decline from which it only emerged during the industrial boom of the nineteenth century, when it filled with factories, whose belching chimneys encrusted the old city with soot and grime, a disagreeable measure of the city’s economic revival. Indeed, its entrepreneurial mayor, Emile Braun, even managed to get the Great Exhibition, showing the best in contemporary design and goods, staged here in 1913. Still today, Ghent remains an industrial city, but in the last twenty years it has benefited from an extraordinarily ambitious programme of restoration and refurbishment, thanks to which the string of fine Gothic buildings that dot the ancient centre have been returned to their original glory.

St-Baafskathedraal

St-Baafsplein • Cathedral April–Oct Mon–Sat 8.30am–6pm, Sun 1–6pm; Nov–March Mon–Sat 8.30am–5pm, Sun 1–5pm • Free Mystic Lamb April–Oct Mon–Sat 9.30am–5pm, Sun 1–5pm; Nov–March Mon–Sat 10.30am–4pm, Sun 1–4pm • €4 • 092 69 20 45, sintbaafskathedraal.be

The best place to start an exploration of the city is the mainly Gothic St-Baafskathedraal (St Bavo’s cathedral), squeezed into the eastern corner of St-Baafsplein. The third church on this site, and 250 years in the making, the cathedral is a tad lop-sided, but there’s no gainsaying the imposing beauty of the west tower, with its long, elegant windows and perky corner turrets. Some 82m high, the tower was the last major part of the church to be completed, topped off in 1554 – just before the outbreak of the religious wars that were to wrack the country for the next hundred years.

The nave, transepts and crypt

The chapel displaying the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb is at the start of the cathedral’s mighty, fifteenth-century nave, whose tall, slender columns give the whole interior a cheerful sense of lightness, though the Baroque marble screen spoils the effect by darkening the choir. In the nave, the principal item of interest is the Rococo pulpit, a whopping oak and marble affair, where the main timber represents the Tree of Life with an allegorical representation of Time and Truth at its base. Nearby, the north transept holds a characteristically energetic painting by Rubens (1577–1640) entitled St Baaf entering the Abbey of Ghent. Dating to 1624, it includes a self-portrait – he’s the bearded head. St Baaf (aka St Bavo) turns up again above the high altar, a marble extravaganza featuring the saint ascending to heaven on an untidy heap of clouds. Also in the north transept is the entrance to the dank and capacious vaulted crypt, a survivor from the earlier Romanesque church. The crypt is stuffed with religious bric-a-brac of only limited interest with the exception of a superb triptych, The Crucifixion of Christ, by Justus van Gent (1410–80). The painting depicts the crucified Christ flanked, on the left, by Moses purifying the waters of Mara with wood, and to the right by Moses and the bronze serpent which cured poisoned Israelites on sight.

ghent’s mystic lamb: Scares and alarUms

Despite appearances, the Just Judges panel is not authentic. It was added during the 1950s to replace the original, which was stolen in April 1934 and never recovered. The lost panel features in Albert Camus’s novel The Fall, whose protagonist keeps it in a cupboard, declining to return it for a complex of reasons, one of which is “because those judges are on their way to meet the Lamb …[but]…there is no lamb or innocence any longer”. Naturally enough, there has been endless speculation as to who stole the panel and why, with suspicion ultimately resting on a certain Arsène Goedertier, a stockbroker and conservative politician from just outside of Ghent, who made a deathbed confession in November 1934. Whether he was acting alone or as an agent for others is still hotly contested – and other suspects have ranged from the ridiculous (the Knights Templar) to the conceivable (the Nazis), but no one really knows.

The theft was just one of many dramatic events to befall the painting – indeed, it’s remarkable that the altarpiece has survived at all. The Calvinists wanted to destroy it; Philip II of Spain tried to acquire it; the Emperor Joseph II disapproved of the painting so violently that he replaced the nude Adam and Eve with a clothed version of 1784 (exhibited today on a column at the start of the nave just inside the cathedral entrance); and, near the end of World War II, the Germans hid it in an Austrian salt mine, where it remained until American soldiers rescued it in 1945.

The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb

In a small chapel to the left of the cathedral entrance is Ghent’s greatest treasure, a winged altarpiece known as The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb (De Aanbidding van het Lam Gods), a seminal work of the early 1430s, though of dubious provenance. Since the discovery of a Latin verse on its frame in the nineteenth century, academics have been arguing about who actually painted it. The inscription reads that Hubert van Eyck “than whom none was greater” began, and Jan van Eyck, “second in art”, completed the work, but as nothing else is known of Hubert, some art historians doubt his existence. They argue that Jan, who lived and worked in several cities (including Ghent), was entirely responsible for the painting and that only later, after Jan had firmly rooted himself in the rival city of Bruges, did the citizens of Ghent invent “Hubert” to counter his fame. No one knows the altarpiece’s authorship for sure, but what is certain is that in his manipulation of the technique of oil painting the artist – or artists – was able to capture a needle-sharp, luminous realism that must have stunned his contemporaries.

The cover screens

The altarpiece is now displayed with its panels open (except from noon to 1pm each day), though originally these were kept closed and the painting only revealed on high days and holidays. Consequently, it’s actually best to begin round the back with the cover screens, which hold a beautiful Annunciation scene with the Archangel Gabriel’s wings reaching up to the timbered ceiling of a Flemish house, the streets of a town visible through the windows. In a brilliant coup of lighting, the shadows of the angel dapple the room, emphasizing the reality of the apparition – a technique repeated on the opposite cover panel around the figure of Mary. Below, the donor and his wife, a certain Joos Vydt and Isabella Borluut, kneel piously alongside statues of the saints.

The upper level

By design, the restrained exterior was but a foretaste of what lies within – a striking, visionary work of art whose brilliant colours and precise draughtsmanship still take the breath away. On the upper level sit God the Father (some say Christ Triumphant), the Virgin and John the Baptist in gleaming clarity; to the right are musician-angels and a nude, pregnant Eve; and on the left is Adam plus a group of singing angels, who strain to read their music. The celebrated sixteenth-century Flemish art critic Karel van Mander argued that the singers were so artfully painted that he could discern the different pitches of their voices – and true or not, it is indeed the detail that impresses, especially the richly embroidered trimmings on the cloaks.

The lower central panel

In the lower central panel, the Lamb, the symbol of Christ’s sacrifice, is depicted in a heavenly paradise – “the first evolved landscape in European painting”, suggested Kenneth Clark – seen as a sort of idealized Low Countries. The Lamb stands on an altar whose rim is minutely inscribed with a quotation from the Gospel of St John, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world”. Four groups converge on the Lamb from the corners of the central panel. In the bottom right is a group of male saints and up above them are their female equivalents; the bottom left shows the patriarchs of the Old Testament and above them is an assortment of bishops, dressed in blue vestments and carrying palm branches.

The side panels

On the side panels, approaching the Lamb across symbolically rough and stony ground, are more saintly figures. On the right-hand side are two groups, the first being St Anthony and his hermits, the second St Christopher, shown here as a giant with a band of pilgrims. On the left-hand side panel come the horsemen, the inner group symbolizing the Warriors of Christ (including St George bearing a shield with a red cross) and the outer group showing the Just Judges, each of whom is dressed in fancy Flemish attire.

The Lakenhalle

Botermarkt • No public access except to visit the attached Belfort

Across from the cathedral, on the west side of St Baafsplein, stands the Lakenhalle (Cloth Hall), a sombre hunk of a building with an unhappy history. Work began on the hall in the early fifteenth century, but the cloth trade slumped before it was finished and it was only grudgingly completed in 1903. Since then, no one has ever worked out what to do with the building – though its basement did once serve as the town prison – and today it’s little more than an empty shell. The entrance to the prison was round on the west side of the Lakenhalle through the Mammelokker (The Suckling), a grandiose Louis XIV-style portal of 1741 that stands propped up against the main body of the building. Part gateway, part warder’s lodging, the Mammelokker is adorned with a bas-relief sculpture illustrating the classical legend of Cimon, whom the Romans condemned to death by starvation. Pero, his daughter, saved him by turning up daily to feed him from her breasts – hence the name.

The Belfort

Botermarkt • Daily 10am–6pm • €8 • 092 33 39 54, belfortgent.be

The first-floor entrance on the south side of the Lakenhalle is the only way to reach the adjoining Belfort (Belfry), a much-amended medieval edifice whose soaring spire is topped by a comically corpulent gilded copper dragon. Once a watchtower and storehouse for civic documents, the interior is now little more than an empty shell displaying a few old bells, a carillon drum or two and incidental statues alongside the rusting remains of a brace of antique dragons, which formerly perched on top of the spire. The belfry is equipped with a glass-sided lift that climbs up to the roof, where consolation is provided in the form of excellent views over the city centre.

The Stadhuis

Botermarkt • Guided tours only May–Sept Mon–Fri (1 daily) as the first 45min of the 2hr walking tour organized by the Guides’ Association • €10 • For further details and booking, contact tourist information

Stretching along the west side of the Botermarkt is the Stadhuis (City Hall), whose discordant facade comprises two distinct sections. The later section, dating from the 1580s, frames the central stairway and is a fine example of Italian Renaissance architecture, its crisp symmetries faced by a multitude of black-painted pilasters. In stark contrast are the wild, curling patterns of the section to the immediate north, carved in Flamboyant Gothic style at the beginning of the sixteenth century to a design by one of the era’s most celebrated architects, Rombout Keldermans (1460–1531). The whole of the Stadhuis was originally to have been built by Keldermans, but the money ran out when the wool trade collapsed and the city couldn’t afford to finish it off until much later – hence today’s mixture of styles.

Guided tours of the Stadhuis amble round a series of halls and chambers, the most interesting being the old Court of Justice or Pacificatiezaal (Pacification Hall), where the Pacification of Ghent was signed in 1576. A plaque commemorates this treaty, which momentarily bound the rebel armies of the Low Countries (today’s Belgium and the Netherlands) together against their rulers, the Spanish Habsburgs. The hall’s charcoal-and-cream tiled floor is designed in the form of a maze. No one’s quite certain why, but it’s thought that more privileged felons (or sinners) had to struggle round the maze on their knees as a substitute punishment for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem – a good deal if ever there was one.

St-Niklaaskerk

Cataloniestraat • Mon 2–5pm, Tues–Sun 10am–5pm • Free • 092 34 28 69, visit.gent.be

Just along the street from the Lakenhalle is St-Niklaaskerk, an architectural hybrid dating from the thirteenth century that was once the favourite church of the city’s principal merchants. It’s the shape and structure that pleases most, especially the arching buttresses and pencil-thin turrets which, in a classic example of the early Scheldt Gothic style, elegantly attenuate the lines of the nave. Inside, many of the original Baroque furnishings and fittings have been removed and the windows un-bricked, thus returning the church to its light and airy original appearance. One feature you can’t miss is the giant-sized Baroque high altar with its mammoth representation of God the Father glowering down its back, blowing the hot wind of the Last Judgement from his mouth and surrounded by a flock of cherubs. The church is sometimes used for temporary art exhibitions.

The Korenmarkt

St-Niklaaskerk marks the southern end of the Korenmarkt (Corn Market), the traditional focus of the city, a long and wide cobbled area where the grain which once kept the city fed was traded after it was unloaded from the boats that anchored on the Graslei dock nearby. The one noteworthy building here is the former post office, whose combination of Gothic Revival and neo-Renaissance styles illustrates the eclecticism popular in Belgium at the beginning of the twentieth century. The carved heads encircling the building represent the great and the good who came to the city in numbers for the Great Exhibition of 1913 – among them was, rather surprisingly, Florence Nightingale. The Korenmarkt was also where the bourgeoisie rubbed uneasy shoulders with the workers – and the street plan of the city centre still reflects Ghent’s ancient class and linguistic divide: the streets to the south of the Korenmarkt tend to be straight and wide, lined with elegant old mansions, the former habitations of the wealthier, French-speaking classes, while, to the north, Flemish Ghent is all narrow alleys and low brick houses.

St-Michielsbrug

Next to the old post office, St-Michielsbrug (St Michael’s bridge) offers fine views back over the towers and turrets that pierce the Ghent skyline. This is no accident: the bridge was built in 1913 to provide visitors to the Great Exhibition with a vantage point from which to admire the city centre. The bridge also overlooks the city’s oldest harbour, the Tussen Bruggen (Between the Bridges), from whose quays – the Korenlei and the Graslei – boats leave for trips around the city’s canals.

St-Michielskerk

St-Michielsplein • April–Sept Mon–Sat 2–5pm • Free • 092 34 28 69, visit.gent.be

Beside St Michielsbrug rises the bulky mass of St-Michielskerk, a heavy-duty Gothic edifice begun in the 1440s, which – despite its forlorn and clumsily truncated tower – manages to look rather handsome. The interior is even more enticing, the broad sweep of the five-aisled nave punctuated by tall and slender columns that shoot up to the arching vaults of the roof. Here also, in the north transept, is a splendidly impassioned Crucifixion by Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641). Trained in Antwerp, where he worked in Rubens’ workshop, van Dyck made extended visits to England and Italy in the 1620s, before returning to Antwerp in 1628. He stayed there for four years – during which time he painted this Crucifixion – before migrating to England to become portrait painter to Charles I and his court.

The guildhouses of the Graslei

Ghent’s boatmen and grain-weighers were crucial to the functioning of the medieval city, and they built a row of splendid guildhouses along the Graslei, each gable decorated with an appropriate sign or symbol. Working your way north from St Michielsbrug, the first building of distinction is the Gildehuis van de Vrije Schippers (Guildhouse of the Free Boatmen), at no. 14, where the weathered sandstone is decorated with scenes of boatmen weighing anchor plus a delicate carving of a caravel – the type of Mediterranean sailing ship used by Columbus – located above the door. Medieval Ghent had two boatmen guilds: the Free, who could discharge their cargoes within the city, and the Unfree, who could not. The Unfree Boatmen were obliged to unload their goods into the vessels of the Free Boatmen at the edge of Ghent – an inefficient arrangement by any standard, though typical of the complex regulations governing the guilds.

Next door, the seventeenth-century Cooremetershuys (Corn Measurers’ House), at Graslei 12–13, was where city officials weighed and graded corn behind a facade graced by cartouches and garlands of fruit. Next to this, at no. 11, stands the quaint Tolhuisje, another delightful example of Flemish Renaissance architecture, built to house the customs officers in 1698, while the adjacent limestone Spijker (Staple House), at no. 10, boasts a surly Romanesque facade dating from around 1200. It was here that the city stored its grain supply for over five hundred years until a fire gutted the interior.

Finally, three doors down at no. 8, the splendid Den Enghel takes its name from the banner-bearing angel that decorates the facade; the building was originally the stonemasons’ guildhouse, as evidenced by the effigies of the four Roman martyrs who were the guild’s patron saints, though they are depicted in medieval attire rather than togas and sandals.

The Groentenmarkt

The jumble of old buildings at the Groentenmarkt (Vegetable Market) makes for one of the city’s prettier squares. The west side of the square is flanked by a long line of stone gables which were once the retaining walls of the Groot Vleeshuis (Great Butchers’ Hall), a covered market in which meat was sold under the careful control of the city council. The gables date from the fifteenth century but are in poor condition and the interior is only of interest for its intricate wooden roof.

The Korenlei

Across the Grasbrug bridge from the Graslei lies the Korenlei, where a series of expansive, Neoclassical merchants’ houses, mostly dating from the eighteenth century, overlooks the western side of the old city harbour. It’s the general ensemble that appeals rather than any particular building, but the Gildehuis van de Onvrije Schippers (Guildhouse of the Unfree Boatmen), at no. 7, does boast a fetching eighteenth-century facade decorated with whimsical dolphins and bewigged lions, all bulging eyes and rows of teeth.

Design Museum

Jan Breydelstraat 5 • Mon, Tues, Thurs & Fri 9.30am–5.30pm; Sat & Sun 10am–6pm • €8 • 09 267 99 99, designmuseumgent.be

The enjoyable Design Museum focuses on Belgian decorative and applied arts, with the collection divided into two distinct sections. At the front, squeezed into what was once an eighteenth-century patrician’s mansion, is an attractive sequence of period rooms, mostly illustrating the Baroque and the Rococo. The original dining room is especially fine, from its fancy painted ceiling, ornate chandelier and Chinese porcelain through to its intricately carved elm panelling. The second section, at the back of the mansion, comprises a modern display area used both for temporary exhibitions and to showcase the museum’s eclectic collection of applied arts, dating from 1880 to the present day. Here, the Art Nouveau material is perhaps the most visually arresting, especially the finely crafted furnishings of the Belgian Henry van der Velde (1863–1957).

Het Gravensteen

St-Veerleplein • Daily: April–Oct 10am–6pm; Nov–March 9am–5pm • €10 • 092 25 93 06, gravensteen.stad.gent

The cold, forbidding walls and unyielding turrets of Het Gravensteen, the castle of the counts of Flanders, look sinister enough to have been lifted from a Bosch painting. They were first raised in 1180 as much to intimidate the town’s unruly citizens as to protect them, and, considering the castle has been used for all sorts of purposes since then (even a cotton mill), it has survived in remarkably good nick. The imposing gateway comprises a deep-arched, heavily fortified tunnel leading to a large courtyard, which is framed by protective battlements complete with ancient arrow slits and apertures for boiling oil and water.

Overlooking the courtyard are the castle’s two main buildings: the count’s residence on the left and the keep on the right, the latter riddled with narrow, interconnected staircases set within the thickness of the walls. A self-guided tour takes you through this labyrinth, the first highlight being a room full of medieval military hardware, from suits of armour, pikes, swords, daggers and early pistols through to a pair of exquisitely crafted sixteenth-century crossbows. Beyond is a gruesome collection of instruments of torture; a particularly dank, underground dungeon (or oubliette); and the counts’ vaulted session room – or council chamber. It’s also possible to walk along most of the castle’s encircling wall, from where there are pleasing views over the city centre.

St-Veerleplein

Public punishments ordered by the counts and countesses of Flanders were carried out in front of the castle on St-Veerleplein, now an attractive cobbled square, but with an ersatz punishment post plonked here in 1913 and topped off by a lion carrying the banner of Flanders. In case the citizenry became indifferent to beheading, it was here also that currency counterfeiters were thrown into boiling oil or water.

Oude Vismijn

At the back of St-Veerleplein, beside the junction of the city’s two main canals, is the grandiloquent Baroque facade of the Oude Vismijn (Old Fish Market), in which Neptune stands on a chariot drawn by sea horses. To either side are allegorical figures representing the River Leie (Venus) and the River Scheldt (Hercules), the two rivers that spawned the city. After years of neglect, the Oude Vismijn has been redeveloped and is now home to the tourist office.

Huis van Alijn Museum

Kraanlei 65 • Mon, Tues, Thurs & Fri 9am–5pm; Sat & Sun 10am–6pm • €6 • 092 35 38 00,  huisvanalijn.be

The Huis van Alijn folklore museum occupies a series of pretty little almshouses set around a central courtyard. Dating from the fourteenth century, the almshouses were built following a major scandal reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet. In 1354, two members of the Rijms family murdered three of the rival Alijns when they were at Mass in St-Baafskathedraal. The immediate cause of the affray was jealousy – one man from each clan was after the same woman – but the dispute went deeper, reflecting the commercial animosity of two guilds, the weavers and the fullers. The murderers fled for their lives and were condemned to death in absentia, but were eventually – eight years later – pardoned on condition that they paid for the construction of a set of almshouses, which was to be named after the victims. The result was the Huis van Alijn, which became a hospice for elderly women and then a workers’ tenement until the city council snapped it up in the 1940s.

The museum consists of two sets of rooms, either side of the courtyard, depicting local life and work in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There are reconstructions of a variety of shops and workshops – a dispensary, a barber’s and so forth – plus small thematic displays illustrating particular aspects of traditional Flemish society such as popular entertainment, funerals and death, though the labelling is a tad skimpy. One particular highlight, in one of the rooms on the museum’s right-hand side, is a bank of miniature TV screens showing short, locally made amateur films in a continuous cycle. Some of these date back to the 1920s and they are regularly rotated, but most are postwar, including a snippet featuring a local 1970s soccer team dressed in terrifyingly tight shorts.

The Patershol

Provinciaal Cultuurcentrum Caermersklooster Tues–Sun 10am–5pm • €10 • 092 69 29 10, caermersklooster.be

Behind the Kraanlei are the lanes and alleys of the Patershol, a tight web of brick terraced houses dating from the seventeenth century. Once the heart of the Flemish working-class city, this thriving residential quarter had, by the 1970s, become a slum threatened with demolition. After much debate, the area was saved from the developers and a process of restoration begun, the result being today’s gaggle of modernized terraced houses and apartments. The only specific attraction is the grand old Carmelite Monastery on Vrouwebroersstraat, now the Provinciaal Cultuurcentrum Caermersklooster, which showcases regular exhibitions of contemporary art, photography, design and fashion.

Dulle Griet

From the Kraanlei, an antiquated little bridge leads over to Dulle Griet (Mad Meg), a lugubrious fifteenth-century cannon whose failure to fire provoked a bitter row between Ghent and the nearby Flemish town of Oudenaarde, where it was cast. In the 1570s, fearful of a Habsburg attack, Ghent purchased the cannon from Oudenaarde. As the region’s most powerful siege gun, able to propel a 340kg cannonball several hundred metres, it seemed a good buy, but when Ghent’s gunners tried it out, the barrel cracked on first firing. The useless lump was then rolled to the edge of the Vrijdagmarkt, where it has stayed ever since – and much to the chagrin of Ghent city council, Oudenaarde simply refused to offer a refund.

Vrijdagmarkt

A wide and open square, the Vrijdagmarkt was long the political centre of Ghent, the site of both public meetings and executions – sometimes at the same time. In the middle of the square stands a nineteenth-century statue of the guild leader Jacob van Artevelde, portrayed addressing the people in heroic style. Of the buildings flanking the Vrijdagmarkt, the most appealing is the old headquarters of the trade unions, the whopping Ons Huis (Our House), a sterling edifice built in eclectic style at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Jacob van Artevelde comes to a sticky end

One of the shrewdest of Ghent’s medieval leaders, Jacob van Artevelde (1290–1345) was elected captain of all the guilds in 1337. Initially, he steered a delicate course during the interminable wars between France and England, keeping the city neutral – and the textile industry going – despite the machinations of both warring countries. Ultimately, however, he was forced to take sides, plumping for England. This proved his undoing: in a burst of Anglomania, Artevelde rashly suggested that a son of Edward III of England become the new count of Flanders, an unpopular notion that prompted a mob to storm his house and hack him to death. Artevelde’s demise fuelled further outbreaks of communal violence and, a few weeks later, the Vrijdagmarkt witnessed a riot between the fullers and the weavers that left five hundred dead. This rumbling vendetta – one of several that plagued the city – was the backdrop to the creation of the Huis van Alijn.

Bij St-Jacobs

St-Jacobskerk Early April to late Oct Fri & Sat 9.30am–12.30pm • Free • 092 23 25 26, visit.gent.be

Adjoining the Vrijdagmarkt is Bij St-Jacobs, a sprawling and irregularly shaped square whose centrepiece is the whopping St-Jacobskerk, a glum-looking edifice that partly dates from the twelfth century. From the outside, the church’s proudest features are its twin west towers and central spire. Inside, the heavily vaulted nave is awash with Baroque decoration from the gaudy pulpit to the kitsch high altar.

STAM

De Bijloke, Godshuizenlaan • Mon, Tues, Thurs & Fri 9am–5pm, Sat & Sun 10am–6pm • €8 • 092 67 14 00, stamgent.be

Now a sprawling multi-use site just to the west of the River Leie, De Bijloke incorporates the substantial remains of an old Cistercian abbey, the Bijlokeabdij, which dates back to the thirteenth century. The core of De Bijloke today is STAM, a new museum that explores the city’s history via paintings and a battery of original artefacts. Visits begin in a bright, new cube-like structure and continue in the former abbey church and cloisters, with one of the early highlights being the two delightful medieval wall paintings in the former refectory. Look out also for the room full of medieval illuminated books and incidental sculpture; a selection of vintage military hardware; a good section on the city’s guilds; and, pick of the lot, a detailed section on the mysterious theft of the Just Judges panel of the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb.

Citadelpark

A large chunk of greenery, Citadelpark takes its name from the fortress that stood here until the 1870s, when the land was cleared and prettified with the addition of grottoes and ponds, statues and fountains, a waterfall and a bandstand. These nineteenth-century niceties survive today and, as an added bonus, the park seems refreshingly hilly after the flatness of the rest of Ghent. In the 1940s, a large brick complex was built on the east side of the park and, after various incarnations, it now divides into two – a Conference Centre and the S.M.A.K. art gallery.

above Stadhuis, Oudenaarde ; Canal, Ghent

S.M.A.K.

Jan Hoetplein 1 • Tues–Fri 9.30am–5.30pm, Sat & Sun 10am–6pm • €8 • 092 40 76 01, smak.be

S.M.A.K, the Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art), is one of Belgium’s most adventurous contemporary art galleries. It’s largely devoted to temporary displays of international standing and these exhibitions are supplemented by a regularly rotated selection of sculptures, paintings and installations drawn from the museum’s permanent collection. S.M.A.K possesses examples of all the major artistic movements since World War II – everything from Surrealism, the CoBrA group and Pop Art through to Minimalism and conceptual art – as well as their forerunners. Perennial favourites include the installations of the influential German Joseph Beuys (1921–86), who played a leading role in the European avant-garde art movement of the 1970s, and Panamarenko’s eccentric polyester zeppelin entitled Aeromodeller.

Museum voor Schone Kunsten (MSK)

Fernand Scribedreef 1 • Tues–Fri 9.30am–5.30pm, Sat & Sun 10am–6pm • €8 • 093 23 67 00, mskgent.be

The Museum voor Schone Kunsten (MSK; Fine Art Museum), just opposite S.M.A.K., holds the city’s principal art collection and runs an ambitious programme of temporary exhibitions. It occupies an imposing Neoclassical edifice and the paintings are well displayed, but the interior can be a tad confusing – be sure to pick up a floor plan at reception.

Early Flemish paintings

In Room 2, one highlight of the museum’s small but eclectic collection of early Flemish paintings is Rogier van der Weyden’s (1399–1464) Madonna with Carnation, a charming work where the proffered flower, in all its exquisite detail, serves as a symbol of Christ’s passion. Also in Room 2 are two superb works by Hieronymus Bosch (1450–1516), his Bearing of the Cross showing Christ mocked by some of the most grotesque and deformed characters he ever painted. Among the grotesques, you’ll spy a singularly wan penitent thief confessing to a monstrously ugly monk and St Veronica, whose cloak carries the imprint of Christ’s face. This struggle between good and evil is also the subject of Bosch’s St Jerome at Prayer, in the foreground of which the saint prays, surrounded by a brooding, menacing landscape.

Rubens and his contemporaries

Room 5 features a powerful St Francis by Rubens (1577–1640), in which a very sick-looking saint bears the marks of the stigmata, while Jacob Jordaens (1593–1678), who was greatly influenced by Rubens, is well represented in Room 7 by the whimsical romanticism of his Allegory of Fertility. Jordaens was, however, capable of much greater subtlety and his Studies of the Head of Abraham Grapheus, also in Room 7, is an example of the high-quality preparatory paintings he completed, most of which were later recycled within larger compositions. In the same room, Anthony van Dyck’s (1599–1641) Jupiter and Antiope wins the bad taste award for its portrayal of the lecherous god with his tongue hanging out in anticipation of sex with a sleeping Antiope. Further on, Room 15 holds a fine collection of seventeenth-century Dutch genre paintings plus several works by Kortrijk’s talented Roelandt Savery (1576–1639), who trained in Amsterdam and worked for the Habsburgs in Prague and Vienna before returning to the Low Countries. To suit the tastes of his German patrons, he infused many of his landscapes with the romantic classicism that they preferred – Orpheus and the Garden of Eden were two favourite subjects – but the finely observed detail of his paintings was always in the true Flemish tradition as in his striking Plundering of a Village, where there’s a palpable sense of outrage.

The eighteenth century onwards

The museum’s eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collection includes a handful of romantic historical canvases, plus – and this is a real surprise – a superbly executed portrait of a certain Alexander Edgar by the Scot Henry Raeburn (1756–1823). Also on display are several key paintings by Ostend’s James Ensor (1860–1949), notably the ghoulish Skeleton looking at Chinoiserie and Pierrot and Skeleton in Yellow Robe, though you have to take pot luck with the museum’s most famous Ensor, his much-lauded Self-Portrait with Flower Hat, as this is often out on loan. Other high points include a batch of Expressionist paintings by the likes of Constant Permeke (1886–1952) and Gustave de Smet (1887–1943) as well as several characteristically unsettling works by both Paul Delvaux (1897–1994) and René Magritte (1898–1967). Two cases in point are Delvaux’s The Staircase and Magritte’s Perspective II. Manet’s Balcony, in which wooden coffins have replaced the figures from Manet’s painting.

Arrival and departure: ghent

By train Ghent has three train stations, but the one you’re almost certain to arrive at is Gent St-Pieters (belgianrail.be), about 2km south of the city centre. From outside the station, tram #1 (destination Evergem, NOT Flanders Expo) runs up to the Korenmarkt at the heart of the city every few minutes.

Destinations Antwerp Centraal (every 30min; 50min); Bruges (every 20min; 20min); Brussels (every 20min; 30min); De Panne (hourly; 1hr 15min); Diksmuide (hourly; 50min); Kortrijk (every 30min; 20min); Mechelen (hourly; 50min); Ostend (every 30min; 40min); Oudenaarde (Mon–Fri hourly, Sat & Sun every 2hr; 35min); Veurne (hourly; 1hr 10min).

By car The E40, the Brussels-Ostend motorway, clips the southern edge of the city. There are lots of city-centre car parks with one of the most convenient being the 24hr one beneath the Vrijdagmarkt.

getting around

By tram & bus Trams and buses are operated by De Lijn (070 22 02 00, delijn.be). A standard one-way fare costs €3. Tickets are valid for an hour and can be purchased at automatic ticket machines and from the driver. A 24hr city transport pass, the Dagpas, costs €6 (€8 from the driver). Note also that a Ghent city pass includes public transport. Tourist information issues free maps of the transport system.

By bike Ghent is good for cycling: the terrain is flat and there are cycle lanes on many of the roads and cycle racks dotted across the centre. Bike rental is available at St-Pieters train station with the Blue-bike scheme (092 41 22 24; registration €10; rental €3/hr) and from Biker, on the northeast side of the city centre at Steendam 16 (Tues–Sat 9am–12.30pm & 1.30–6pm; 092 24 29 03, bikerfietsen.be; standard bike €9/day).

By guided walking tour There are several different types of guided walking tour to choose from, but the standard tour, operated by city’s Guides’ Association, is a 2hr jaunt around the city centre (May–Sept 1 daily; Oct–March Sat & Sun 1 daily; tours start at 2pm; €10); they include a visit to either the Stadhuis (Mon–Fri) or the cathedral (Sat & Sun). Tickets are on sale at tourist information and advance booking – at least a few hours ahead of time – is strongly recommended.

By horse-drawn carriage Horse-drawn carriages congregate outside the Lakenhalle, offering a 30min canter round town for €35 (Easter to Oct daily 10am–6pm & most winter weekends).

By taxi Try V-Taxi on 092 22 22 22.

GHENT BY boat

Throughout the season, boat trips explore Ghent’s inner waterways, departing from the Korenlei quay, just near the Korenmarkt, as well as from the Vleeshuisbrug, beside the Kraanlei (April–Oct daily 10am–6pm; €7). Trips last forty minutes and leave every fifteen minutes or so, though the wait can be longer as boats often delay their departure until they are reasonably full.

information

Tourist information Ghent’s efficient tourist office is located in the Oude Vismijn, opposite the Het Gravensteen on St-Veerleplein (mid-March to mid-Oct daily 10am–6pm; mid-Oct to mid-March 9.30am–4.30pm; 092 66 56 60, visit.gent.be).

Accommodation

Ghent has around sixty hotels and a small army of B&Bs with several of the most enjoyable places located in the centre, which is where you want to be. The city also has a couple of bright and cheerful hostels. The tourist office’s website has comprehensive listings (visit.gent.be).

Hotels

Best Western Chamade Koningin Elisabethlaan 3 092 20 15 15, chamade.be; map. Standard, three-star accommodation in bright, modern bedrooms at this family-run hotel, which occupies a distinctive, six-storey modern block, a 5min walk north of the train station. €140

Erasmus Poel 25 092 24 21 95, erasmushotel.be; map. Friendly, family-run two-star located in a commodious old townhouse a few metres away from the Korenlei. Each room is thoughtfully decorated and furnished in traditional style with lots of antiques. The breakfast is excellent and reservations are strongly advised in summer. €100

De Flandre Poel 1 092 66 06 00, hoteldeflandre.be; map. Medium-sized, four-star hotel in a thoroughly refashioned, nineteenth-century mansion with a modern annexe at the back. The rooms vary considerably in size, style and comfort – and those towards the rear are much quieter than those on the Poel. Competitively priced. €110

Ghent River Waaistraat 5 092 66 10 10, ghent-river-hotel.be; map. Four-star hotel whose austere modern facade doesn’t do it any favours, but persevere: the interior is much more appealing and most of the guest rooms occupy that part of the building which was once a cotton mill – hence the bare-brick walls and industrial trappings. €120

Harmony Kraanlei 37 093 24 26 80, hotel-harmony.be; map. In an immaculately renovated old mansion, this deluxe four-star hotel has just twenty-odd guest rooms decorated in an attractive modern style: all wooden floors, strong pastel shades and with photos of old Ghent. The best rooms are on the top floor and come complete with their own mini-terrace, affording grand views over the city. €170

Monasterium Poortackere Oude Houtlei 56 092 69 22 10, monasterium.be; map. This unusual one-star hotel-cum-guesthouse occupies a rambling and somewhat spartan former nunnery and orphanage a 5min walk west of Veldstraat, with ageing brickwork dating from the nineteenth century. There’s a choice of rooms, all en suite, with the cheapest being doubles in the former doctor’s house; there are others in the old orphanage (€140; max 5 guests) and yet more offering a slightly more authentic experience in the former nuns’ quarters (either 6 beds for €180 or doubles for €155). Breakfast is taken in the former chapterhouse. €110

Novotel Centrum Goudenleeuwplein 5 092 93 90 02, novotel.com; map. The guest rooms at this brisk, three-star chain hotel are pretty routine, but the location – just near the cathedral – is hard to beat, the price is very competitive, and there’s an outdoor swimming pool – a rarity in central Ghent and great if the sun is out. €90

Sandton Grand Hotel Reylof Hoogstraat 36 092 35 40 70, sandton.eu; map. This superb chain hotel occupies a spacious nineteenth-century mansion, whose elegant, high-ceilinged foyer sets a perfect tone. Beyond, the 158 rooms vary in size and facilities, but most are immaculate and spacious and decorated in an appealing rendition of country-house style. The former coach house is now a spa and there is a patio terrace too. The least expensive deals exclude breakfast. €120

B&Bs

Abrahams Prinsenhof Abrahamstraat 5 092 23 41 08, dolders.be; map. In an immaculately modernized eighteenth-century house, complete with a string of period features, this lovely place has three rooms – two suites (for up to five guests) and a single room in the courtyard-garden. Has a handy, central location near the castle. €100

At Genesis Hertogstraat 15 0486 14 10 25, www.stayatgenesis.com; map. In the heart of the Patershol, in a sympathetically modernized old terrace house, this B&B offers two second-floor guest rooms – one for a maximum of two guests, the other six – located above an artist’s studio. Both come with a kitchenette and have lots of nice decorative touches plus beamed ceilings. €100

Simon Says Sluizeken 8 092 33 03 43, simon-says.be; map. On the edge of the Patershol, in a good-looking building with an Art Nouveau facade, this combined coffee bar and B&B has just two guest rooms, both fairly small and straightforward modern, en-suite affairs. Smashing breakfasts – be sure to try the croissants – and reasonably priced. €130

De Waterzooi St-Veerleplein 2 0475 43 61 11, dewaterzooi.be; map. Superbly renovated eighteenth-century mansion with a handful of handsome rooms that manage to make the most of their antique setting but are extraordinarily comfortable at the same time – the split-level attic room is the most ambitious. Wonderful views of the Het Gravensteen, and if the weather is good you can take breakfast outside in the garden-patio. Minimum two- or sometimes three-night stay at peak periods. €170

Hostels

Hostel 47 Blekerijstraat 47 0478 71 28 27, hostel47.com; map. Well-kept hostel with spacious and clean two- to six-bed dormitories in an old house about a 15min walk from the city centre. There’s a small garden, internet access and shared bathrooms. A basic breakfast is included in the price. Dorms €27, doubles €66

Jeugdherberg De Draecke St-Widostraat 11 092 33 70 50, jeugdherbergen.be/en; map. Well-equipped, HI-affiliated hostel that’s just a 5min walk north of the Korenmarkt. Has 120 beds in two- to six-bunk, en-suite rooms, plus a library, bar and lounge. Advance reservations are advised, especially in summer. Currently being expanded. Breakfast included. Dorms €28, doubles €62

Eating

Ghent’s multitude of cafés, café-bars and restaurants offers the very best of Flemish and French food alongside an international cast of other cuisines with prices to match every budget. Most restaurants close on Sun.

Cafés

Avalon Geldmunt 32 092 24 37 24, restaurantavalon.be; map. This long-established vegetarian restaurant offers a wide range of well-prepared dishes – be sure to look out for the daily specials, which cost about €12. Choose from one of the many different rooms or the terrace at the back in the summer. Tues–Sat 11.30am–2.30pm.

Café Labath Oude Houtlei 1 0476 99 42 81, cafelabath.be; map. Specialist coffee house in neat, modern premises that makes much of the quality of its beans – with good reason. Snacks, soups and teas too. Attracts a boho bunch. Mon–Fri 8am–7pm, Sat 9am–7pm, Sun 10am–6pm.

Greenway Nederkouter 42 092 69 07 69, greenway.be; map. Straightforward café-cum-takeaway decorated in sharp modern style, selling a wide range of eco-friendly foods, from organic burgers to pastas, noodles and baguettes, all for just a few euros each. Mon–Sat 11am–10pm.

Gwenola Voldersstraat 66 092 23 17 39, gwenola.be; map. This long-established pancake house may be a bit over the hill decoratively, but who cares when the pancakes are so good – and inexpensive, from €3 and up. Note that the sugar looks as if it has been added with a trowel. Mon–Sat 11am–7pm.

Julie’s House Kraanlei 13 092 33 33 90, julieshouse.be; map. “Baked with love, served with joy” is the boast here – it’s a little OTT perhaps, but Julie’s home-made cakes and patisseries are truly delicious. They also serve breakfasts (till 2pm) and pancakes. Squeezed into an ancient terrace house in one of the prettiest parts of the city. Wed–Sun 9am–6pm.

Souplounge Zuivelbrugstraat 4 092 23 62 03, souplounge.be; map. Bright and cheerful self-service café, where the big bowls of freshly made soup are the main event – from €6. Sandwiches and salads too. Daily 10am–7pm.

Take Five Voldersstraat 10 093 11 44 96, take-five-espressobar.be; map. Bright and brisk coffee bar with a cool soundtrack – jazz meets house – and pleasing decor. Offers a great range of specialist-bean coffees, a selection of teas and delicious cakes and pastries. Mon–Fri 8am–6pm & Sat 9am–6pm.

Restaurants

Domestica Onderbergen 27 092 23 53 00, domestica.be; map. Smart and chic brasserie-restaurant serving up an excellent range of Belgian dishes – both French and Flemish – in nouvelle cuisine style. Has a garden terrace for good-weather eating. Main courses from €28. Mon & Sat 6.30–10pm, Tues–Fri noon–2pm & 6.30–10pm.

Holy Food Beverhoutplein 15 holyfoodmarket.be; map. This is Ghent at its brightest and most inventive, a deconsecrated seventeenth-century church turned into a multi-outlet, indoor food market: sit down and you can munch away at anything from Malay cuisine (at Malar’s), Portuguese tapas (Taberna Lisboa) or just stick to avocados prepared every which way (Avo). Daily 11am–10pm.

Lepelblad Onderbergen 40 093 24 02 44, lepelblad.be; map. Very popular restaurant, with a heaving pavement terrace, where the ever-changing menu is inventive and creative with pasta dishes, salads and traditional Flemish cuisine to the fore – try, for example, the Ghent waterzooi (€22). The arty decor is good fun too. Tues 5.30–11pm, Wed–Sat noon–3pm & 5.30–11pm.

Maison Elza Jan Breydelstraat 36 092 25 21 28, maisonelza.be; map. Idiosyncratic, split-level café-restaurant that’s liberally sprinkled with Edwardian bric-a-brac – you’ll even spot some vintage models’ dummies. They serve a tasty breakfast here (3 days a week) as well as afternoon teas and in the evening (currently 2 days a week) the menu offers a limited but well-chosen selection of freshly prepared meat and fish dishes (mains average €25): try, for example, the wood-pigeon risotto. The window tables overlook a canal and, if the weather holds, you can eat out on the pontoon at the back. Mon, Sat & Sun 8.30am–6pm, Thurs & Fri 6–9.30pm.

Marco Polo Trattoria Serpentstraat 11 092 25 04 20; map. This rustic restaurant is part of the Italian “slow food” movement in which the emphasis is on organic, seasonal ingredients prepared in a traditional manner. All the dishes are freshly prepared. Mains from €20, pizzas €12. Tues–Thurs & Sat 6–10pm, Fri noon–2pm & 6–10pm.

Naturell Jan Breydelstraat 10 092 79 07 08, naturell-gent.be; map. The brightly coloured furnishings and fittings may be informal but they take their food very seriously here, with the emphasis on local, seasonal ingredients used in gastronomic set meals. A five-courser will set you back €75, a three-course lunch €35. Reservations well-nigh essential. Tues 7–10.30pm, Wed–Sat noon–3pm & 7–10.30pm.

Pakhuis Schuurkenstraat 4 092 23 55 55, pakhuis.be; map. Set in a creatively remodelled old warehouse with acres of glass and metal plus a large outside area, this lively bistro-brasserie is one of Ghent’s more fashionable options. The extensive menu features Flemish and French dishes, with mains from €21, but the simpler dishes are what they do best. Down a narrow alley near St-Michielsbrug. Kitchen Mon–Sat noon–2.30pm & 6.30–11pm, bar daily 11.30am–1am.

Du Progrès Korenmarkt 10 092 25 17 16, duprogres.be; map. This long-established, family-owned café-restaurant is popular with tourists and locals alike. The house speciality is steak (€25–30) – and very tasty it is too. Rapid-fire service and a handy central location. Kitchen Tues–Sat 11.30am–10pm, café-bar daily 11.30am–10pm.

De Raadkamer Nederkouter 3 092 33 68 49, de-raadkamer.be; map. Family-run restaurant in neat, modern premises offering a short but well-conceived menu of Belgian favourites: try, for example, the turbot risotto with asparagus and lobster sauce. Mains average €23. Tues–Sat noon–2.30pm & 6–9.30pm, Sun noon–2.30pm.

drinking and nightlife

Ghent’s bars are a real delight, and some of the best – with a beer list long enough to strain any liver – are within easy strolling distance of the Korenmarkt. The club and live music scene is also first-rate, with Ghent’s students taking the lead, congregating at the string of bars and clubs that line Overpoortstraat, just south of St-Pietersplein.

Decadance Overpoortstraat 76 093 29 00 54, decadance.be; map. Long a standard-bearer for the city’s nightlife, this club near the university (hence the abundance of students) offers one of the city’s best nights out, with either live music – most of Belgium’s bands have played here at one time or another – or DJs. Three rooms – three styles of music. Times vary, see website, but core hours Fri & Sat 11pm–10am.

‘t Dreupelkot Groentenmarkt 12 092 24 21 20, dreupelkot.be; map. Cosy bar specializing in jenever (Belgian gin), of which it stocks more than 200 brands, all kept at icy temperatures – the vanilla flavour is particularly delicious. It’s down a little alley leading off the Groentenmarkt, and next door to Het Waterhuis. Daily 4pm till late.

Dulle Griet Vrijdagmarkt 50 092 24 24 55, dullegriet.be; map. Long, dark and atmospheric bar with all manner of incidental objets d’art and an especially wide range of beers. Mon 4.30pm–1am, Tues–Sat noon–1am, Sun noon–7.30pm.

Hotsy Totsy Hoogstraat 1 092 24 20 12; map. Long the gathering place of the city’s intelligentsia – though less so today – this ornately decorated bar, with its Art Nouveau flourishes, has ranks of drinkers lining up along its long wooden bar. Regular live jazz and blues sessions too. Mon–Fri 6pm till late, Sat & Sun 8pm till late.

Den Turk Botermarkt 3 092 33 01 97, cafedenturk.be; map. Thought to be the oldest bar in the city, this tiny rabbit warren of a place offers a good range of beers and whiskies, though the decor lacks vitality. Frequent live music, mainly jazz. Daily 11am till late.

Vooruit St-Pietersnieuwstraat 23 092 67 28 48, vooruit.be; map. The Vooruit performing arts centre has good claim to be the cultural centre of the city (at least for the under-40s), offering a wide-ranging programme of rock and pop through to dance. It also occupies a splendid building, a twin-towered and turreted former festival hall that was built for Ghent’s socialists in an eclectic rendition of Art Nouveau in 1914. The café-bar is a large barn-like affair that stays jam-packed until the small hours of the morning. Café-bar Mon–Wed & Sun noon–1am, Thurs–Sat noon–2am.

Het Waterhuis aan de Bierkant Groentenmarkt 9 092 25 06 80, waterhuisaandebierkant.be/waterhuis-ligging; map. More than a hundred types of beer are available in this engaging canal-side bar, which is popular with tourists and locals alike. Be sure to try Stropken (literally “noose”), a delicious local brew named after the time, in 1540, when Charles V compelled the rebellious city burghers to parade outside the town gate with ropes around their necks. Daily 11am–1am.

shopping

There’s a large and popular flea market (prondelmarkt) on Bij St-Jacobs and adjoining Beverhoutplein (Fri, Sat & Sun 8am–1pm); a daily flower market on the Kouter, just off Veldstraat, though this is at its best and busiest on Sundays (7am–1pm); and organic foodstuffs on the Groentenmarkt (Fri 7.30am–1pm).

Atlas & Zanzibar Kortrijksesteenweg 19 092 20 87 99, atlaszanzibar.be; map. Outstanding travel bookshop with a comprehensive range of travel guide books and maps, and located some 2km south of the city centre. Well-informed staff will help you on your way. Mon–Sat 10am–1pm & 2–6pm.

The Fallen Angels Jan Breydelstraat 29–31 092 23 94 15, the-fallen-angels.com; map. Mother and daughter run these two adjacent shops, selling all manner of antique bric-a-brac, from postcards and posters through to teddy bears and toys. Intriguing at best, twee at worst, but a distinctive source of unusual gifts. Mon, Tues & Thurs–Sat 11am–noon & 1–6pm, Wed 1–6pm.

FNAC Veldstraat 88 092 23 40 80, www.nl.fnac.be; map. Expansive, multi-floor chain store specializing in all things electronic from CDs to TVs. Also does a good sideline in books with a reasonable selection of English paperbacks and Belgian walking maps. Handy, central location. Mon–Sat 10am–6.30pm.

Het Mekka van de Kaas Koestraat 9 092 25 83 66, hetmekkavandekaas.be; map. Literally the “Cheese Mecca”, this small specialist shop offers a remarkable range of traditional and exotic cheeses – try some of the delicious Ghent goat’s cheese (geitenkaas). Sells a good range of wine, too. Tues–Fri 9am–1pm & 1.30–6.30pm, Sat 9am–6.30pm.

Priem Zuivelbrugstraat 1 092 23 25 37; map. One of the oddest shops in Ghent, Priem has an extraordinary range of vintage wallpaper dating from the 1950s. Zuivelbrugstraat is the location of the main shop, but there are three other neighbouring premises on the Kraanlei. Mon 2–5.30pm, Tues–Fri 9.30am–12.30pm & 2–6pm, Sat 9.30am–12.30pm & 2–5.30pm.

Tierenteyn Groetenmarkt 3 092 25 83 36, tierenteyn-verlent.be; map. This traditional shop, one of the city’s most delightful, makes its own mustards – wonderful, tongue-tickling stuff displayed in shelf upon shelf of ceramic and glass jars. A small jar will set you back about €5. Mon 10am–6pm, Tues–Fri 9am–6pm, Sat 9.30am–6pm.

Van Hecke Koestraat 42 092 25 43 57, www.chocolaterievanhecke.be; map. Many locals swear that this independent, family-run chocolatier sells the best chocolates and cakes in town. Mouthwatering, lip-smacking, taste-bud-satisfying stuff. Tues–Sat 9am–6pm, Sun 9am–1pm.

Ghent FESTIVALs

Ghent boasts a hatful of festivals, some an excuse for a(n alcoholic) knees-up, others more demure (read cultural). To begin with, there’s the prestigious Festival van Vlaanderen (Flanders Festival; gentfestival.be), a classical music event which runs from March to October with concerts in all of the major cities of Flanders, including Ghent. There’s also the Gentse Feesten (gentsefeesten.stad.gent): ten days of partying, including all sorts of gigs, held in mid- to late July and always including July 21; and last but not least the Ghent Film Festival (filmfestival.be), held over eleven days in October and one of Europe’s foremost cinematic events, showcasing around two hundred feature films from all over the world and screening Belgian films well before they hit the circuit.

Entertainment

Ghent prides itself on its performing arts scene, with five first-rate venues, two very good art-house cinemas, a premier opera company (that it shares with Antwerp) and half a dozen theatre troupes. For upcoming events, consult the tourist information website (visit.gent.be). Tickets are available from venues direct or from Uitbureau Gent, at the back of the Museum Arnold Vander Haeghen, Veldstraat 82 (Mon–Fri 10.30am–5pm, Sat 10.30am–4pm; 092 33 77 88, uitbureau.be).

Major venues

Concertzaal Handelsbeurs Kouter 29 092 65 91 60, handelsbeurs.be; map. The city’s primary concert hall with two auditoria and hosting a wide and diverse programme.

Muziekcentrum De Bijloke Godhuizenlaan 2 093 23 61 00, bijloke.be; map. The old Bijloke abbey complex now holds the STAM historical museum and a Muziekcentrum, which includes a smart new concert hall.

NT Gent Schouwburg, Sint Baafsplein 17 092 25 01 01, ntgent.be; map. Right in the centre of the city, the municipal theatre accommodates the Nederlands Toneel Gent, the regional repertory company. Almost all of their performances are in Flemish, though they do play occasional host to touring English-language theatre companies.

Vlaamse Opera Gent Schouwburgstraat 3 070 22 02 02, operaballet.be; map. Handsomely restored nineteenth-century opera house, where the city’s opera company performs when not on tour.

Vooruit St-Pietersnieuwstraat 23 092 67 28 28, vooruit.be; map. One of Ghent’s leading venues for rock, pop and jazz concerts, with a lively on-site café-bar.

Art-house cinemas

Sphinx Sint-Michielshelling 3 092 25 60 86, sphinx-cinema.be; map. Behind an old facade metres from the Korenmarkt, Sphinx focuses on foreign-language and art-house films, which are almost always sub-titled (rather than dubbed).

Studio Skoop Sint Annaplein 63 092 25 08 45, studioskoop.be; map. The cosiest of the city’s cinemas, but still with five screens and a café, located a 10min walk east from the city centre.

Highlights

Brief history

Brief history

Trouble and strife

Decline and revival

The Markt

Belfort

Hallen

Heilig Bloed Basiliek

The treasury

Stadhuis

Renaissancezaal ’t Brugse Vrije

The Vismarkt and around

Groeninge Museum

Jan van Eyck

Rogier van der Weyden

Hugo van der Goes

Hans Memling

Gerard David

Hieronymus Bosch

Jan Provoost

Pieter Pourbus

The Symbolists

The Expressionists

The Surrealists

Arentshuis

Arentspark

Gruuthuse Museum

Onze Lieve Vrouwekerk

The chancel

Lanchals Chapel

The earthly remains of Charles the Bold and Mary of Burgundy

St-Janshospitaalmuseum

The Memling collection

Reliquary of St Ursula and two Memling triptychs

Triptych of St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist

Virgin and Martin van Nieuwenhove

Portrait of a Young Woman

St-Salvatorskathedraal

The nave and porch

The treasury

The Begijnhof

Begijnenhuisje

Minnewater

Jan van Eyckplein and around

Spiegelrei canal

Gouden Handrei and around

Spanjaardstraat

The Adornesdomein

The Jeruzalemkerk

Kantcentrum

Arrival and departure: bruges

getting around

information

Cycling around bruges

Guided tours and boat trips in and around bruges

Accommodation

Hotels

B&bs

Hostels

Eating

Cafés and café-bars

Restaurants

Drinking AND NIGHTLIFE

Festivals and events in Bruges

Shopping

Entertainment

directory

Brief history

Visserskaai

James Ensorhuis

Wapenplein

St-Petrus-en-Pauluskerk

Léopold II-laan

Mu.ZEE

Fort Napoleon

Arrival and Information: Ostend

Getting around

Accommodation

Eating