The truncated tower
Meant to be Ghent's tallest — stopped at 24 metres.
Vitaly Volkov — CC BY 2.5 · Ben Bender — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Michal Osmenda from Brussels, Belgium — CC BY-SA 2.0 · Zairon — CC BY-SA 4.0
St Michael's Church is the late-Gothic church at the end of St Michael's Bridge on the Korenlei — built between 1440 and 1660, its tower was meant to be Ghent's tallest (134 metres) but stopped at 24 metres without a top when the money ran out in the religious troubles, leaving the "truncated tower" an odd landmark on the skyline. The interior is spacious Gothic with slender columns, and its treasure is "The Crucifixion" by Anthony van Dyck (1630) — Rubens' most famous pupil — plus a baroque pulpit and paintings by Ghent artists. More than all that is its location: from the neighbouring bridge Ghent's most famous view, with the quays and the old Dominican church (Het Pand, with its cellars) around it. Usually open afternoons (seasonal) — a short free stop on the route as you cross the bridge.
Meant to be Ghent's tallest — stopped at 24 metres.
A dramatic Crucifixion of 1630 in a side chapel.
Sint-Michielsplein, 9000 Ghent
St Michael's BridgeSt Michael's Bridge is Ghent's foremost viewpoint: an arched stone bridge (1913)1 minute walk4.9
Graslei and Korenlei (Old Quays)The Graslei and Korenlei are Ghent's old harbour quays on the facing banks of th2 minutes walk4.9
KorenmarktThe Korenmarkt ("Wheat Market") is Ghent's central square and meeting place: a b3 minutes walk4.8
St Nicholas' ChurchSt Nicholas' Church is the first of the three towers from the quays and the olde3 minutes walk4.7
Museum Arnold Vander HaeghenAn eighteenth-century town house on the commercial Veldstraat, operating as a sm3 minutes walk4.5Begun in the sixteenth century to become Ghent's tallest, the religious troubles (the 1566 iconoclasm and the wars) bankrupted the parish, so it stopped at 24 metres with a flat roof. Completing it was debated repeatedly and never happened — so the "truncated tower" became part of Ghent's identity, like many of its unfinished landmarks.