7 Best Sights in Ghent, Ghent and the Leie

This magnificent row of guild houses in the original port area is best seen from across the River Leie on the Korenlei (Corn Quay). The guild house of the Metselaars (Masons) is a copy of a house from 1527. The Eerste Korenmetershuis (the first Grain Measurers' House), representing the grain weigher's guild, is next. The oldest house of the group, the brooding, Romanesque Koornstapelhuis (Granary), was built in the 12th century and served its original purpose for 600 years. It stands side by side with the narrow Renaissance Tolhuis (Toll House), where taxes were levied on grain shipments. No. 11 is the Tweede Korenmetershuis (Grain Measurers' House), a late-Baroque building from 1698. The Vrije Schippers (Free Bargemen), at No. 14, is a late-Gothic building from 1531, when the guild dominated inland shipping.

Construction on the cathedral of St. Bavo (or Sint-Baaf) began in the 12th century but it wasn't finished for hundreds of years. Consequently, you can spy every flavor of medieval Gothic in its stonework, from the more austere early sculpting to the fine Brabantine style that swept the Low Countries in the 15th and 16th centuries. Inside is breathtaking but, for the past five centuries, most visitors come here for one thing: to see the famous Ghent Altarpiece, one of the most influential paintings of the Middle Ages.

The altarpiece, a series of 12 panels, was created by the brothers Jan and Hubert van Eyck and has long lived in infamy. It has been the victim of several thefts, and after one of its lower panels was stolen in 1934, it was never recovered (a replica stands in its place), giving rise to numerous conspiracy theories and inspiring Albert Camus's novel The Fall. Ongoing restoration of the altarpiece since 2012 has seen what remains gradually returned to its original condition, with visitors able to see the restoration work up close at the Museum of Fine Arts. The rest now sits in a newly built visitor center, with augmented-reality tours offering an in-depth look at the history of this iconic artwork.

Elsewhere, the cathedral has many works of art. Its ornate pulpit, made of white Italian marble and black Danish oak, was carved in the 18th century by the sculptor Laurent Delvaux. A Rubens masterpiece, Saint Bavo's Entry into the Monastery, also hangs in one of the chapels. Other treasures include a baroque-style organ built in 1623 and a crypt crammed with tapestries, church paraphernalia, and 15th- and 16th-century frescoes.

There are three beguinages ("begijnhof" in Dutch) in Ghent, built centuries ago to house women (beguines) who lived lives of prayer and devoted themselves to charitable works but did not take religious vows. It sounds like something from another age, but the last beguine to live in Ghent only died in 2013. The best surviving example is Our Lady ter Hoyen, founded in 1235 by Countess Joanna of Constantinople. This is the smallest of the three and is protected by a wall and portal. The surrounding homes were built in the 17th and 18th centuries and are still organized in a medieval style, each holding a statue of a saint. Today, you can walk quietly through the main building and peek into the stone chapel—the houses are off-limits, with the larger ones leased for residential use. The smaller houses have become artists' workshops. Although entry is free, a gate closes to keep out nonresidents 10 pm--6:30 am.

The city's second beguinage, the UNESCO-listed Groot Begijnhof, is found on Van Arenbergstraat, west of the city center. At its peak, some 600 beguines lived there. The city's third and final beguinage is on Begijnhofdries, but its walls have long since come down.

What do you do when you have a scientific collection so sprawling and disparate that there's no coherent way to display it? This new museum offers an ingenious solution: simply look into how such things are investigated. Sections touch upon "classification," "doubt," "measurement," and other scientific conundrums, explored via formaldehyde-preserved animals, fossils, zoetropes, ancient sites, and even sex surveys. 

The city's main square is fringed with gabled buildings, cafés, and shops; it's also the site of one of the city's busiest tram stops. Adjoining the square, along Korte Munt, is the Groentenmarkt, the former vegetable market and site of the city's pillory, where criminals were put in the stocks and exposed to public abuse, back in the Middle Ages.

Perhaps Belgium's best example of Scheldt-Gothic, St. Nicholas's Church was built in the 11th century in Romanesque style, destroyed a century later after two disastrous fires, and later rebuilt by prosperous merchants. During the French Revolution, the church was used as a stable, and its treasures were ransacked. The tower, one of the many soaring landmarks of this city's famed skyline, dates from about 1300 and was the first belfry in Ghent.

The Town Hall is an early example of what excessive taxes can do for a city. In 1516, Antwerp's Domien de Waghemakere and Mechelen's Rombout Keldermans, two prominent architects, were called in to build a town hall that would put all others to shame. However, before the building could be completed, Emperor Charles V imposed new taxes that drained the city's resources. The architecture thus reflects the changing fortunes of the city: the side built in 1518–60 and facing Hoogpoort is in flamboyant Gothic style; when work resumed in 1580, during the short-lived Protestant Republic, the Botermarkt side was completed in a stricter and more economical Renaissance style.