The Flemish cities: Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp

Towers and canals

Flanders is flat, and its cities can be seen from far away. Each arrival is announced by a tower. In Mechelen, it is the tower of St Rumbold’s Cathedral, 97 metres high and never finished. In Ghent, three towers stand in a row: St Nicholas’ Church, the belfry and St Bavo’s Cathedral.

Each city has its main square, like the Grand-Place in Brussels. In Leuven, the Gothic town hall is covered in statues. In Antwerp, the Grote Markt brings together the Renaissance town hall and the Brabo Fountain. Then there is the water: the Graslei and Korenlei quays in Ghent, the canals of Bruges, the old docks of Antwerp around the MAS. A road lined with poplars leads from Bruges to Damme, its old outer port.

To the south-west, in the Westhoek, the fields are dotted with cemeteries from the Great War. Tyne Cot is the largest Commonwealth war cemetery, with nearly 12,000 graves. In Ypres, the Last Post has been played under the Menin Gate every evening at 8 pm since 1928, except during the occupation of 1940–1944. In Mechelen, the Dossin Barracks have become a memorial: more than 25,000 Jews and Roma were deported from there. South of Ghent, Oudenaarde opens onto the hills of the Flemish Ardennes.

The belfry of Bruges rises to 83 metres and has 366 steps. The town was linked to the sea by the Zwin. This inlet silted up and Bruges lost its port. In the 16th century, Antwerp, on the Scheldt, became the great port of northern Europe. Bruges fell asleep and kept most of its old centre.

From the Flemish Primitives to Rubens

The cities’ money also paid the painters. In St Bavo’s Cathedral in Ghent, you can see The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb by the Van Eyck brothers, finished in 1432. Its Just Judges panel, stolen in 1934, has never been found: a copy takes its place. In Bruges, the Groeningemuseum displays Van Eyck’s Madonna with Canon van der Paele. It closes in January 2027 for nearly four years: the core of its collection moves to the nearby BRUSK. St John’s Hospital holds paintings by Memling. The Church of Our Lady houses Michelangelo’s Madonna, his only sculpture to leave Italy in his lifetime. The Burg square brings together the town hall and the Basilica of the Holy Blood.

Antwerp is Rubens’ city. Four of his large paintings hang in the cathedral, including The Descent from the Cross. His house and studio are closed until 2030 at least: the garden and the library remain open. The Plantin-Moretus Museum, a 16th-century printing house on the UNESCO list, has two of the oldest printing presses in the world.

What not to miss

1. 1The Grand-Place in BrusselsThe guild houses, and the Manneken Pis 250 metres away.
2. 2St Rumbold’s Tower538 steps and a view as far as Brussels.
3. 3Antwerp Central StationA hall of stone and marble, finished in 1905.
4. 4Graslei and Korenlei, in GhentTwo rows of merchants’ houses facing each other across the Leie.
5. 5The beguinage in BrugesWhite houses around a garden, near the Minnewater, the Lake of Love.
6. 6The Last Post in YpresEvery evening at 8 pm, beneath the names of nearly 55,000 missing soldiers.

The Flemish cities in pictures

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The spire of the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, seen from the Groenplaats.

Flemish food

Ghent’s dish is waterzooi, chicken or fish in a creamy broth. Everywhere, people eat carbonade flamande, beef slowly stewed in beer. Ghent sells cuberdons, purple cone-shaped sweets, and Antwerp sells hand-shaped biscuits, after the legend of Brabo.

In Antwerp, you order a bolleke of De Koninck; in Mechelen, you drink Gouden Carolus from the Het Anker brewery. In Bruges, since 2016, an underground pipe about 3 kilometres long has carried the beer of De Halve Maan to its bottling plant.