Flanders · Self-guided walk
Ghent in one walk 8 sights, 30 minutes
A self-guided walking tour of the Ghent Old Town: 8 sights on one 2.1 km loop, about 30 minutes on foot, back where you started.
No two days to spare? Here is the short version: the big sights in one loop. I would take longer. I always take longer.
At a glance
The walk in numbers.
- Distance
- 2.1 km, a loop
- Time
- about 30 minutes of walking at 4 km/h, plus however long you stop
- Sights
- 8
- Start and finish
- Gravensteen
- Steps
- on Botermarkt, Graslei, Korenlei
- Cost
- free: no guide, no booking, no tip
The route
Map of the Ghent walk: 8 stops, one loop.
The gold line is the walk. The numbers are the stops, in the order you reach them. The pale lines are every other street in the Old Town.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
The stops
8 sights in Ghent, in walking order.
Each stop says how far the next one is and which streets take you there.
1. Gravensteen
the start · inside open Mon–Sun 10:00–18:00
A grey fortress sitting in the middle of a shopping street with water still round it. Take the wall walk. From up there the whole tub of an Old Town is laid out below you and you can see exactly how little of it there is. One way in, water round the rest, and the shops starting where the water stops. Nothing about that arrangement is normal.
Next: Dulle Griet, 320 m, about 5 min, along Kraanlei.
2. Dulle Griet
about 5 minutes of walking from the start
It lies out in the open on a square named after it. No glass, no ticket, no rope. Rust red, absurdly heavy, sitting at about ankle height in the middle of a city that walks past it every day. Put a hand on it, then read the label. It is a much stranger object than it looks.
Next: Koninklijke Academie voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde, 320 m, about 5 min, along Grootkanonplein, Vrijdagmarkt, Kammerstraat.
3. Koninklijke Academie voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde
about 10 minutes of walking from the start
A pale eighteenth-century front on the Koningstraat, at the quiet north-east end of the level where the crowds have given up. It is not a museum and it does not want your ticket. Read the name over the door slowly, all of it. It is the longest name on this level and every word in it is doing a job.
Next: Stadhuis Gent, 250 m, about 4 min, along Kammerstraat, Belfortstraat.
4. Stadhuis Gent
about 13 minutes of walking from the start
It takes up a whole corner and then it keeps going. Walk the Botermarkt side, turn into the Hoogpoort, and the same address is still beside you. Two street names, one house. I measure everything in street length, so by my reckoning this is the biggest single thing on the level.
Next: Sint-Baafskathedraal, 240 m, about 4 min, along Botermarkt, Sint-Baafsplein.
5. Sint-Baafskathedraal
about 17 minutes of walking from the start
The east end of the level. Do not stop in the nave. Underneath it there is a crypt older than anything standing over it, and in a side chapel hangs a panel painting that people cross a continent for. Go and stand in front of it. Nobody is timing you.
Next: Belfort, 150 m, about 2 min, along Sint-Baafsplein.
6. Belfort
about 19 minutes of walking from the start
Climb it. On the way up you pass the bell chamber, and the bells in there are not small. Stand under them when they go and you feel it through the floor more than through the ears. The balcony at the top is the only place on this level where the whole walk makes sense at once.
Next: Sint-Niklaaskerk, 180 m, about 3 min, along Emile Braunplein, Cataloniëstraat.
7. Sint-Niklaaskerk
about 22 minutes of walking from the start · inside open Mon 14:00–17:00, Tue–Sun 10:00–17:00
Grey-blue stone, and it grows straight out of the market it stands in. Go inside and look straight up at the crossing. The lantern above it is hollow and drops daylight into the nave, so nobody ever had to hang a lamp there. The cheapest lighting scheme on this level, and the oldest.
Next: Design Museum Gent, 350 m, about 5 min.
8. Design Museum Gent
about 27 minutes of walking from the start · inside open Mon–Tue 09:30–17:30, Thu–Fri 09:30–17:30, Sat–Sun 10:00–18:00, Wed closed
From the lane it is a townhouse with a very good door. Walk in and the back of it is not a townhouse at all. The whole point of the place is the seam where the old rooms stop and the new ones start, and you can only see that from inside. There are also a great many chairs. I have opinions about chairs.
Back to the start: Gravensteen, 290 m, about 4 min, along Jan Breydelstraat, Rekelingestraat.
Every stop counts from the street; the hours are for going inside. Opening hours from OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors. Check before you go.
After the walk
The rest of Ghent.
This loop is 8 sights. The Old Town is 199 streets, and I have opinions about all of them. Every street of the Ghent Old Town, with what to eat and where.
Cobble Gobble is a walking game for iPhone: every street is a line of dots you collect by walking it, and the phone stays in your pocket. Your first city is free.