Saint Bavo's Abbey

“Every Fleming should come here at least once”: the tip from writer Bart Van Loo. This “primeval place” is located in Ghent, in the Coyendanspark, a green area between the Dampoort and the Portus Ganda. Nearby, the Leie flows into the Schelde. And the Old Germanic word for ‘confluence’ is ‘Ganda’. It’s hard to get closer to the roots of Ghent.

“In the glory period of the late Middle Ages, almost 70,000 people live in Ghent,” says Bart Van Loo. Now there are of course many more – about 270,000. But for that time, that was an enormous number. “Especially when you compare it to Amsterdam, which fluctuated between 1,000 and 3,000 inhabitants. Flanders is the Silicon Valley of its time. And Ghent is the most important city. We are standing here in the Manhattan of the late Middle Ages.”

Mediahuis België