Houses along Graslei reflected in the canal
COMPILED BY CATRIONA GREW, WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM HELENA SMITH.PHOTOGRAPHS: R. KIEDROWSKI/ROBERT HARDING, COURTESY OF REDERIJ DE GENTENAER
Belfort
(belfortgent.be; Sint-Baafsplein)
Ghent’s Unesco-listed 14thcentury belfry (91m) is topped by a large dragon weathervane: he has become a city mascot. You’ll meet two previous dragon incarnations on the 350-stair climb to the top; there are lifts up some of the way. Enter through the Lakenhalle, Ghent’s cloth hall, left half-built in 1445 and only completed in 1903. Hear the carillon at 11.30am Fridays and 11am on summer Sundays.
Design Museum
(designmuseumgent.be; Jan Breydelstraat 5)
A vast toilet-roll sculpture humorously indicates the back side of this museum, where the collection focuses on furnishings including Baroque, Art Nouveau, 1970s psychedelic and 1990s furniture-as-art. It’s hosted in an architecturally eclectic building that catapults you from the 18th century into the 21st, then drags you back again.
Gravensteen