Destination: Ghent
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Ghent

What makes Ghent worth visiting are its buildings, either in all their splendour or in a sad state of decay, silent witnesses to a fascinating history. Houses, monuments, churches and abbeys that were there when the European political tide turned. If Ghent's walls could speak, we could spend hours listening to their stories.

Dante had already warned Philip IV that a terrible revenge awaited him if he annexed Ghent. The Spaniards and the fanatical supporters of the Counter Reformation had to cope with a republican and Calvinistic people, and Napoleon was afraid when he saw the anti-French citizens of Ghent. Even when Belgium became independent in 1830 Ghent was at odds with the state when the citizens of the town went against it and supported the Dutch House of Orange.
The buildings that have survived pollution, wars and urbanisation bear traces of the many artists who expressed their creativity in the city: van Eyck, Hugo van Der Goes, Victor Horta, Maurice Maeterlinck, Georges Minne and many others. The list of artists is growing with the founding of S.M.A.K., the contemporary art museum.
The people of Ghent are proud of their history and they themsleves are well worth listening to; a lively people, opinionated but never boring.

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