Town Hall with belfry - Diskmuide

The foundation stone of the town hall was laid in 1428.

Major renovations were carried out between 1567 and 1572. A painting by Hacke from 1716 also shows an inner courtyard and a chapel turret. The construction of the third neo-Gothic town hall took place between 1875 and 1880 according to plans by the Bruges architect Louis Delacenserie, but during the reconstruction (1923) after the First World War, the architects returned to the architectural elements borrowed from the regional Flemish Renaissance style.

The new belfry tower arose in the courtyard as a typical Flemish and medieval symbol of urban freedom . In 1935, a carillon of 30 bells was housed in the belfry in the openwork bell-shaped tower helmet surrounded by gilded birds and crowned with sphere and gilded mermaid as weathercock.

The tower is on the list of 56 belfries in Belgium and France recognized as World Heritage by UNESCO.

The interior is neo-Gothic with secondary Art Deco elements, including the wedding hall and the council chamber : nut beams, a neo-Gothic mantelpiece, plinth paneling and stucco ceiling with floral moldings in Art Deco style. The stairwell and the so-called Gothic hall are respectively vaulted with a neo-Gothic wooden barrel and pointed barrel vault with girdle arches. In the entrance hall is a black polished stone plaque and bronze high relief to the military and civilian victims of World War I and II and the political prisoners of World War II (unveiled 1926), as well as a smaller white marble plaque to the Canadians who fell in action in Diksmuide during the Second World War.

Willem Vandenameele