BELFRY AND LINEN SHED

Between Place Saint-Bavon and Rue du Marché-au-Beurre, the 91-meter-high belfry, a UNESCO World Heritage site, dominates the city. Gothic in architecture, it was a symbol of communal freedom and prosperity, but also of power, punctuating the lives of the town's inhabitants with a variety of bells.

The Cloth Hall. To visit the belfry, you need to enter the adjacent "halle aux draps", a magnificent late-Gothic building erected in the ^15th century. It testifies to the importance of the cloth industry in medieval times, although this trade was already in decline when the building work began. The hall remained unfinished until the dawn of the ^20th century. Admire the huge fireplace with its hearth, the windows and arches decorated with stone foliage, and the murals dating from 1903.

History. Begun in 1314 to plans drawn up by architect Jan van Haelst, work was abruptly halted for 20 years from 1338. In 1402, the town's privileges were transferred to a safe secretly stored in the belfry. It wasn't until the end of the ^14th century that a temporary structure crowned the building, with a wooden spire bearing the legendary Ghent dragon to indicate the direction of the wind. The relief on the pediment recounts the Roman legend of Simon, a man condemned to die of hunger who was nursed in prison by his daughter during visits. In 1771, the wooden structure was replaced by a neo-Gothic cast-iron spire.

Visit. A free smartphone app is available for explanations in French. Inside the building, you'll discover the original cast-iron dragon-whirligig that crowned the belfry in 1377, or rather, what remains of it. Then you can admire all the bells in the carillon, including a massive 6-ton "Klokke Roeland", the Roland bell. It replaced the one that Charles V had cracked, so that a dreadful, discordant sound would remind the inhabitants of their punishment. In 1659, 45 smaller carillon bells were made by brothers Pierre and François Hemony. The work of these founders can be seen in a museum documentary. Today, the carillon counts 53 bells. The keyboard is on the^4th floor, as is the clock mechanism. Don't miss the chance to see the whole thing in action every quarter-hour! The tour includes an elevator to the top to admire the view over the city, but you'll have to come back down for a dizzying staircase!