The central meadow
A hundred white houses around silent green.
Michiel Hendryckx โ CC BY-SA 4.0 ยท Vandevorst, Kris โ CC BY 4.0 ยท Vandevorst, Kris โ CC BY 4.0 ยท Vandevorst, Kris โ CC BY 4.0
Bruges 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 โ 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.
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Ghent's Small Beguinage is a whole hidden village inside the city: founded in 1234 and UNESCO-listed among the Flemish beguinages โ 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 โ 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) โ 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