Ghent Travelers Recommend

As the capital of the Flemish-speaking Oost-Vlaanderen (East Flanders) province in northern Belgium, Ghent is an important inland port and a buzzing university city. It’s also a medieval masterpiece, right up there with its neighbor Bruges for its spectacular Flemish Gothic architecture. 

Day One: Explore the City

Take a day to enjoy the buzzing streets of Ghent; discover the medieval splendors of Graslei and Korenlei; see the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb in the landmark St Bavo’s Cathedral; and climb to the top of the Belfry for views across the city rooftops. Come evening, head north of the River Leie to fashionable Patershol for a gourmet supper.

Day Two: Remember the Dead

Pay your respects to the fallen of World War I with a tour of the battlefields of Flanders; walk in the trenches that marked the Western Front, see the countless rows of tombstones at Tyne Cot Cemetery and journey to Ypres, around which much of the fiercest fighting raged. Remember the dead at the sobering In Flanders Fields Museum, grab supper in Ypres’ main square and attend the heart-rending Last Post Ceremony, held in the Menin Gate Memorial at 8pm nightly. 

Day Three: Art and Design

Kick-start a day of culture in the superb Design Museum Ghent, then hop on a tram for the 10-minute journey south to Citadelpark for its brace of top-rate art museums (Flemish and contemporary). Pop into STAM, Ghent’s newest – and most entertaining – museum, to learn all about the city’s long journey from medieval to modern, and round off the evening at one of the many open-air restaurants along the quaysides of Graslei and Korenlei.  

Some of the fiercest fighting of World War I took place in the trenches of Flanders, Belgium. With other WWI sites such as Passchendaele and Tyne Cot Cemetery nearby, Ghent is an ideal base from which to explore the region. Here are some key WWI landmarks to visit from Ghent.

Highlights

• Visit Gravenstafel, Passchendaele, and Ypres; stop at the Messines (New Zealand) Ridge Memorial; and see where soldiers served on the Western Front in Belgium during the Great War.

• Take a battlefield tour of the Trench of Death at Diksmuide and gain insight into the horrors of trench warfare.

• Stand in honor of the fallen soldiers of the Ypres Salient during the Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate in Ypres.

• Pay your respects at the war graves of Passchendaele, Polygon Wood, or Tyne Cot.

• Discover open craters and reinforced bunkers on the preserved battlefield of Hill 60.