As I mentioned before, Gent/Ghent is one of my favourite cities in Belgium and I highly recommend it to visitors coming to the country. It is rich in architecture through a long history spanning 14 centuries. Walking around the city, you will be amazed by those well-preserved old cathedrals, castles, guild houses, abbeys, beguinages... as well as innovative modern buildings. They represent various construction techniques and architectural periods, and the best thing is, many of them can be seen in a single street or in close neighborhoods within walking distance.
接着之前关于比利时小城根特的几篇，这次我来向大家展示一些有特色的当地建筑。前几张照片是市中心广场上被三大古老塔尖包围的新地标，用来集会和举办活动。后面介绍了三大古塔：两个教堂和一个钟楼，还有被护城河包围的中世纪伯爵城堡等。
Following my previous posts about the city, this time let me show you some iconic buildings here. So, let's start with a new contemporary masterpiece. Nestled between 3 old towers in the city centre, there is a striking building called City Pavilion (Stadshal). It's designed by architects Robbrecht & Daem and Marie-José Van Hee, winners of a 2000 architectural competition launched by the city. Later in 2012, the whole project including the square refurbishment was completed.
City Pavilion, like Eiffel Tower, a modern structure located in a historical setting, has also been criticized by many. Personally, I don't have any reason to hate it. I think it's exciting to see something new here, and I like its wooden structure. The design even made it to the final of the prestigious Mies Van der Rohe Award.
The hall's walls and roof are clad in African teak and oak，and its top is covered with thin glass tiles. It rests on 4 concrete pillars. A steel framework was used to span the 15-metre wide and 40-metre long structure. The 1,400 rectangular windows let natural light in and create a playful lighting effect. Its height adapts to the surrounding buildings, and its two pointed roofs are mirroring the town hall's stepped gables.
City Pavilion serves as a place for meetings and for hosting events such as music performances, dancing and story-telling festivals. I saw that there's a Christmas event planned here next month, but I'm not sure if it will be cancelled due to the covid situation.
At the lower level below the hall, there is a café, a bicycle shed and artist dressing rooms. A program is also available for rainwater collection and reuse. The café’s outdoor patio overlooks the new city park, a green area where you can relax. In the park centre, there is a sculpture "Fountain with Kneeling Youths" by local sculptor Georges Minne:
You can see from my photos here that the oak roof frame is illuminated at dusk:
Here's a photo I took another time during the day without lights:
The Three Towers are 3 medieval buildings standing close to each other, known as landmarks in the city centre. They are Saint Bavo's Cathedral, Gent Belfry and Saint Nicholas’ Church.
Saint Nicholas’ Church (below) was built in the 13th century and restored in the 19th century. It features the local Scheldt Gothic style using blue-gray stones from the Tournai region. You can see a large tower above the crossing and small turrets at the corners. This is a typical architectural style commonly found in the Low Countries. If you walk inside the Church, you will see a stunningly beautiful organ up there.
Saint Bavo's Cathedral (below, Sint Baafskathedraal in Flemish) was expanded in the Romanesque style and later in the Gothic style in history. It boasts intricate interiors and the famous early Northern Renaissance work Ghent Altarpiece inside. This Adoration of the Mystic Lamb has 18 panels, painted by Flemish brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck in the early 15th century.
The Cathedral and the Ghent Belfry have been designated as UNESCO World Heritage. Standing at 91 meters, the Ghent Belfry is the tallest bell tower in Belgium. You can see it behind the City Pavillion from a photo above (the one with flags and a clock).
Interestingly, another symbol of the city, Ghent University library, The Booktower is called Ghent’s fourth tower. It is a modernistic masterpiece by the famed Belgian architect Henry van de Velde. There is a tiny bronze dog perched on its top, looking very Belgian to me. ;)
The Castle of the Counts (below, Gravensteen in Flemish) is a medieval motte-and-bailey fortress surrounded by a moat. There is a torture museum on site since the castle used to be served as a prison. Sounds horrible, isn't it? I didn't visit the museum but walked to the top to have a view of the city. It's a great point here for looking at The Three Towers.
Saint Michael's Church (below) is a Roman Catholic church with Rococo and neoclassic statues and Baroque paintings inside. When I found this photo taken almost 10 years ago, I could imagine how desperately I wanted to include everything into my not-wide-enough lens frame, haha:
Besides the City Pavillion, another cool new building is De Krook, a library and media center shared by institutions such as the city library, IMEC and the University of Ghent. It's opened in 2017 and is located at the bend(krook) of the river Scheldt, linking the historic centre with the art quarter.
Below are some more architecture photos I shot in the city from different trips. You must have noticed those quintessential stepped gables? Gent is exactly the place where the oldest examples can be seen. The houses on Graslei and some other Romanesque buildings in the city date from the 12th century. This building style was spread from Gent to other parts of Northern and Central Europe starting in the following century. It's also a feature of the northern-Renaissance Revival and Dutch Colonial Revival styles.
If you are interested, there are more buildings by the canal in this post, including the characteristic Old Fish Market.
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