Belfry of Ghent
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The 91-meter-high belfry of Ghent is one of three medieval towers that overlook the old city center of Ghent, Belgium, the other two belonging to Saint Bavo Cathedral and Saint Nicholas' Church. Through the centuries, the belfry has served not only as a bell tower to announce the time and various warnings, but also as a watchtower and town treasury.
Construction of the tower began in 1313 and followed the plans of master mason Jan van Haelst, which are still preserved in a museum. After continuing intermittently through wars and other hardships, the work reached completion in 1380. It was near the end of this period that the gilded dragon assumed its place atop the tower. The top section, originally made of wood, has since been remodeled and rebuilt several times, in part to accommodate the growing number of bells.
The belfry of Ghent together with the Cloth hall and Mammelokker, along with many other belfries of Belgium and France, collectively constitute a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
[edit] Cloth hall and Mammelokker
The hall that adjoins the belfry was built to serve the cloth trade that made the city rich during the Middle Ages, and was later used for various other purposes. Its construction began in 1425 and ended 20 years later, with only seven of eleven planned bays completed. In 1903, the structure was extended by four bays in accordance with the original plan.
A small annex dating from 1741, called the Mammelokker, housed the guards of the town prison that occupied part of the old cloth hall from 1742 to 1902. The name refers to a legend of a prisoner, who had been convicted to death by starvation, but who refused to die and was released in the end. The legend claims the prisoner survived thanks to his daughter, who was a wet nurse and visited every day to breastfeed him. A statue on the building depicts the legend.
[edit] External links
- The Belfry from the City of Ghent
