Belfry and Cloth Hall

The oldest mention of our Cloth Hall dates back to 1293-1294, when the predecessor of today's Vleeshuis was completely worn out. In the new building that was built at the time, the Vleeshuis was housed on the ground floor and the Cloth Hall on the first floor. However, the cloth hall soon became too small and the cloth weavers felt that they had too little space. In 1337 they were given permission to erect a new Cloth Hall on the other side of the market square, which was not completed until 1350. At the time, it consisted of a rectangular two-storey building, with four round-arched gates at the bottom on the side of the Grote Markt and four cross windows at the top. Along the side of the Vismarkt, the building had a large stepped gable of four storeys, topped with cross windows and provided with three gates at the bottom, which gave access to a three-aisled hall. On the first floor was the meeting room of the cloth weavers.

In 1377 it was decided to build a belfry next to this cloth hall. The façade was decorated with five niches. In the tower, the city's privileges were kept in a fireproof room.

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