St Niklaaskerk, Ghent

The church of St. Nicholas in Ghent, Belgium, was constructed from the 1200s to the 1400s by the merchants of Ghent. They chose as their patron St. Nicholas of Myra, who is the inspiration for Santa Claus. The church interior had many shrines and chapels sponsored by the guilds but the Protestant Reformation iconoclasts destroyed them in 1566. In the Baroque period, a massive and impressive altar screen was added as an expression of the Counter-Reformation.

St. Niklaaskerk, Ghent

Nave

Main altar

Altar screen detail (click to enlarge)

The pulpit is large and ornately carved, though doesn't seem to follow the St. Nicholas theme.

Pulpit

The church is filled with statues, mostly life size apostles, typically depicted with the instrument of martyrdom.

St. Paul with the book (he's a writer) and the sword (he was beheaded)

St. Peter with a smaller book (he wrote less) and the Key to the kingdom (no cross)

Unidentified apostle

The tabernacle (where the Holy Eucharist is kept) on a side altar is also quite Baroque.

Tabernacle

Detail from tabernacle (click to enlarge)

A side altar to Mary has a nice painting of the Annunciation. You can also see one of the samples of the art exhibit the church was hosting in the lower right corner. About a dozen mannequins were spread throughout the church in various fashions. This particular mannequin is dressed as a nun, but other mannequins had fairly secular (and some tacky) outfits. I did not take pictures of those. I'm sorry if you're curious.

Altar to Our Lady

The church also has a nice organ and some well-carved confessionals.

Organ with organist and admirers

Confessional

At the back is a painting of St. Nicholas which includes some children in a bucket, much like the altar piece above.

St. Nicholas painting

With a little bit of internet research, here's the legend: during a famine an evil butcher lured three young children into his home where he killed them. He planned to sell them off as meat. He put them in a barrel to cure. St. Nicholas was visiting the area, ministering to the starving locals. He immediately knew what the butcher had done and the children were resurrected through his prayers. This story comes from wikipedia referencing this page. I was familiar with the stories of punching out Arius at the Council of Nicea and providing a dowry for three sisters, but this is a new one.

Het Gravensteen, Ghent

Het Gravensteen is the ancient castle of the counts of Flanders, located in the heart of modern-day Ghent. It was begun in the 1100s but most of what's standing today was added later. It was a military fortification up to the 1300s. Then it was used as a prison until the late 1700s. Later it was used as a cotton mill. Now it is a tourist attraction with lots of the history and fun wandering available inside.

Het Gravensteen (Castle of the Counts), Ghent

The main entrance has a tunnel leading into the main courtyard, which is roomy and available for picnicking.

Castle courtyard with picnicking school group

We bought our tickets and went inside. Most of the rooms are what you'd imagine for a medieval castle--dark and foreboding.

Don't use the top door to leave!

Classroom/dungeon

The great hall has this ramp or slide, not sure what for

The Governor's Hall has an extensive collection of arms from various periods. The kids were a little bored but I found it fascinating. One great sword had lots of crinkly edges and hooks on it. The description explains how it was used to pull the armor off of knights, making them easier to fight. Yikes!

Mace and chain

Riding armor

Sword for tearing off your enemy's armor (nicknamed the "can opener")

Yikes! Pikes!

Some hand-held weapons

They displayed a surprising number of crossbows, including one tiny one that surely would have required a concealed weapon permit, if they had such things back in the day.

Not sure how intimidating those flowers on the top are

Some nice side decorations

Pocket version

The room also had a fireplace big enough for children. J and L love looking up the flue to see what they can see. They managed to see a little bit of daylight.

Fireplace

After a few rooms, we took a winding staircase up to the roof of the castle, which provided many nice views of Ghent.

J's favorite kind of staircase

The roof

The plaza across the street

More of Ghent

Flags blowing in the breeze

Going back downstairs, we discovered some artifacts left over from the prison days, including some medieval torture equipment! We did not stay long as we did not want to explain to the children the purpose of the various implements.

Guillotine

L, come back!

We also saw the main hall where the count would sit in judgment on cases or consult with local authorities. A chair let J and L be count for a minute!

Count's hall

Ex cathedra pronouncements

Another fireplace

The final part of the castle was a walk around the walls. The turrets were interesting to me since they had platforms half-way up, essentially doubling the amount of defenders who could repel invaders.

Two-level turret

Missing the second level!

The back of the castle needs some repairs

Courtyard view from the wall

The children decided one of the turrets had a break-room in it, just like their teachers use at school. When I went to snap a picture, I was asked to leave. I did hear them talking about gamma radiation experiments. Such chatter could be inspired by J's Incredible Hulk book, but maybe there's something going on at school the kids aren't telling us.

Hard at work

One final stop was the gift shop, which had a lot of empty space for some reason. I suppose with rainy weather, school groups would need somewhere to shelter while the guides tell them all about life in the good old days.

Not so inviting gift shop entrance

Big empty space

Belfort, Ghent

One of the easiest landmarks to spot in Ghent is the Belfort, a bell tower in the heart of the city. It was built from 1313 to 1380 and rises almost 300 feet over the town. It has served as a clock tower, a watch tower, and an alarm.

Belfort, Ghent

The tower is right next to the Lakenhalle, or Cloth Hall, where cloth merchants did their trade in the middle ages. It was completed in 1445 and has served as militia guild and a fencing school.

Lakenhall with belfort

We went up a small staircase into the bell tower. The first room was a cozy yet large meeting hall with a grand fireplace.

Meeting hall

Amazing but disused fireplace

Through a small door we found the base of the tower, which was home to several statues that were either being refurbished or were spares.

You can't sneak up on this quartet

Up a flight of stairs was a historical display featuring one of the dragons that had decorated the top of the tower.

Copper dragon, now retired

Lion in the corner

J and L find their niche

We took an elevator up to the observation floor. The first thing we observed was the large machine that rang the bells every fifteen minutes. After seeing it in action, we took the small staircase to see the bells.

Bell player

54-bell carillon

Then we discovered the door that leads outside to the small walkway around the parapet. The views of the city were quite impressive.

Ghent from above

St. Niklaaskerk (St. Nicholas Church)

Stadhuis (State house)

St. Baafskathedraal (St. Bavo's Cathedral)

Cathedral courtyard

We were surprised to see a familiar figure in the courtyard. Mommy had been touring more of the cathedral while we went up the tower. We spotted her waving to us from below. We even shouted to each other, which was probably more embarrassing for Mommy since several passers-by gave her strange looks. We had no passers-by up on the tower.

Zoom to waving figure of Mommy

L consented to a picture up high as long as I would lift her up to see Mommy.

L ready to see Mommy

We enjoyed our visit to the tower and the wonderful views it provided.