The aerial photo
Walk over all Ghent and find your hotel.
Paul Hermans — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Summerinabox — CC BY 4.0 · FrDr — CC BY-SA 4.0 · FrDr — CC BY-SA 4.0
STAM is Ghent's city museum in the fourteenth-century Bijloke abbey (with a refectory of a stunning vaulted wooden ceiling) and a modern glass wing — presenting Ghent's history from the Middle Ages to today in a clear, modern, interactive style, the best introduction to the city before wandering it. Its star is a huge glass floor you walk across above a high-resolution aerial photograph of all Ghent (300 square metres) — you find your hotel, the quays and the castle from above, and historical models of the sixteenth-century city show how Ghent was Europe's second-largest city north of the Alps. Sections on industry and textiles (Ghent was "the Manchester of the continent"), the university and contemporary life. In the Bijloke complex south of the centre (15 minutes on foot or tram) near the Citadelpark and its museums — for lovers of understanding cities, an enjoyable ninety minutes.
Walk over all Ghent and find your hotel.
A fourteenth-century vaulted wooden ceiling.
The city model when it was Europe's second north of the Alps.
Godshuizenlaan 2, 9000 Ghent
SMAK (Contemporary Art Museum)SMAK is Ghent's museum of contemporary art and among Belgium's most important — 9 minutes walk3.9
St Peter's AbbeySt Peter's Abbey is among the oldest abbeys of Flanders — founded by St Amand in9 minutes walk4.5
CitadelparkThe Citadelpark is Ghent's great park south of the centre, on the site of a Dutc10 minutes walk4.1
Museum of Fine Arts (MSK)Ghent's Museum of Fine Arts (MSK) is among Belgium's oldest museums (1798) and m10 minutes walk4.4
Museum Arnold Vander HaeghenAn eighteenth-century town house on the commercial Veldstraat, operating as a sm12 minutes walk4.5For a stay of two days or more and a love of understanding cities: yes — Belgium's clearest city museum, and the aerial floor a unique experience. Combine it with the Citadelpark and the nearby MSK and SMAK on a southern museum day. For a one-day visit: the historic centre comes first.