The central meadow
A hundred white houses around silent green.
Michiel Hendryckx — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Vandevorst, Kris — CC BY 4.0 · Vandevorst, Kris — CC BY 4.0 · Vandevorst, Kris — CC BY 4.0
Ghent's Small Beguinage is a whole hidden village inside the city: founded in 1234 and UNESCO-listed among the Flemish beguinages — about a hundred small white houses with red roofs and doors bearing saints' names, arranged in rows around a broad central meadow and a baroque church, behind a wall and a gate — inhabited by the "beguines" (devout women without permanent vows) for eight centuries until the last in 2005. Unlike Bruges' crowded beguinage, this one is nearly empty of visitors: complete silence, its residents today families, students and artists renting the restored houses, the green meadow at the centre of everything. Walking its stone paths among the look-alike houses feels like stepping out of time, 15 minutes from the centre. Free and open by day (quiet required) — for those seeking the still Ghent, and especially lovely in evening light.
A hundred white houses around silent green.
Each house bears a saint's name above its door.
Lange Violettestraat 235, 9000 Ghent
St Bavo's Abbey RuinsThe ruins of St Bavo's Abbey are Ghent's spiritual cradle: here St Amand founded6 minutes walk4.6
St Bavo's CathedralSt Bavo's Cathedral is home to Belgium's most famous painting and one of the mos7 minutes walk4.8
Belfry of GhentGhent's Belfry is the middle and most symbolic of the three towers: a fourteenth9 minutes walk4.5
Ghent City HallGhent's City Hall is an architecture lesson on one façade: its northern half (on9 minutes walk3.8
Sint-JacobskerkA church in central Ghent gathering eight centuries of building into one structu10 minutes walk4.3Bruges is more famous, smaller and crowded (with its celebrated spring daffodils); Ghent's Small one is larger, far quieter and more authentic as an inhabited village — those wanting the real feel without crowds prefer it. Ghent has three beguinages; the "Large" one in Sint-Amandsberg (1874) is bigger and newer. The Small is the loveliest for a visitor.