To Duval Family Home Page Europe
To Chris Home PageDeutschland, België, Nederland, Luxembourg and Danmark
To Earth (Geography Home Page)

Gent

Gent (or Gand in French, Gante in Spanish, Ghent in English) is a city of about a quarter million residents1 in the East Vlaanderen (East Flanders) province of België (Belgique or Belgium), at the confluence of the Schelde (Escault or Scheldt) and Leie (Lys) rivers. The three tallest buildings are the medieval Belfort (Belfry) at 91 meters, the gothic Saint Baafs (Bavo) Cathedral at 89 meters and Saint Jacobs Church at 80 meters.2 The belfry, topped by a three and a half meter long dragon statue, is a World Heritage Site.3 Other famous buildings include the Saint Niklass (Nicholas) Church, dated from the 13th century but much reconstructed in the 20th; Saint Michiels Church, which hopes to become the tallest; Gravensteen, a castle whose core dates from the 11th century; the Geraard de Duivelsteen, a 14th century castle now used as an archive; and the Central University Library, a modern skyscraper whose heights offer a belvedere shaped like a Greek cross. Its second World Heritage Site3 comprises its three béguinages: Old Saint Elizabeth (Holy Corner), New Saint Elizabeth and Our Lady Ter-Hooyen.

CityYearPopulation4Political entity
Gand140070,000Duché de Bourgogne (Interim Kingdom of Burgundy)5
Gent150080,000Freigrafschaft Burgund (Hapsburg Burgundy, nominally Imperium Romanum Sacrum or Holy Roman Empire)
Gante160031,000Reino de España (Spain, nominally the independent Países Bajos españoles, and also nominally part of the Imperium Romanum Sacrum or Holy Roman Empire)
Gante170049,000Reino de España (Spain, though also nominally part of the Imperium Romanum Sacrum or Holy Roman Empire)
Gand180051,000République française (French Republic)
Gent1900198,000België (Belgique or Belgium)

External references

Graslei area of Gent (Ghent)

Historical maps

map showing part of the Duché de Bourgogne, 1400 CE

map showing part of the Freigrafschaft Burgund, 1500 CE

map showing part of the Reino de España, 1600 and 1700 CE

map showing part of the République française, 1800 CE

map showing part of België, 1900 CE

map of Deutschland, the Benelux countries and Danmark (part), 2000 CE

Footnotes

1. World-gazetteer.com, accessed, 1/8/2011.
2. The heights and the size of the dragon sculpture are from emporis.com, accessed 1/8/2011. The MG Tower under construction will be higher than 100 meters.
3. Shared with other locations.
4. Estimates in Tables of the World's Largest Cities in Tertius Chandler, Four Thousand Years of Urban Growth, 2nd ed. (The Edwin Mellen Press, 1987). In 1400 and 1500 Gand or Gent (Ghent) was the largest city in what is now Deutschland, België, Nederland, Luxembourg and Danmark.
5. Nominall