1 The Ghent Altarpiece
2 Gravensteen
3 Kerkhof Campo Santo
4 Kuip van Gent
5 Patershol
6 Prinsenhof
7 St Baafskathedraal
8 St Elisabethbegijnhof
9 Stedelijk Museum voor Aktuele Kunst (S.M.A.K.)
10 Vrijdagmarkt
“You only die once. Only a sausage has two ends.” - Local saying
Campo Santo has become the product of an ideological battle between various cemeteries in Ghent, including rivalry with the 'beggar's graveyard' as the Westerbegraaf plaats is known. The nickname says it all - this is the resting place of the unbelievers: socialists and agnostics. For years there was fierce competition between Campo Santo and the Westerbegraafplaats. Both cemeteries wanted to bury as many famous people as possible and to have the most elaborate monuments.
Several writers, artists and composers are buried at Campo Santo. The location is beautiful: a hill on which Saint Amand would have preached in the 7th century, with a late-baroque chapel at the highest point and trees that were already there when the first burials took place in 1847. This is the last resting place of the cultural, financial and Catholic elite of Ghent; they lie under expensive monuments, 120 of which are listed. Well-known people include man of letters Jan Frans Willems (section A), author Filip de Pilecyn (section A), graphic artist Frans Masereel (section A), writer Rosalie Loveling (section C), poet Karel van de Woestijne and his brother Gustaaf the painter (section F) and a winner of the Nobel Prize for Medicine, Corneel Heymans (section V).Address: Antwerpsesteenweg
Open: Daily 10-6
Restaurant: Chip shops and snack bars near the station (Inexpensive)
Bus: 70-74; 76-78
Train: Gent-Dampoort Station
Accessible: None
Admission: Free
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