Christmas Travels: Ghent & Brussels

As I wrote in my last post, I'm doing a very long overdue recap on the travels to the Low Countries last Christmas, and I started with a bit about Belgium and the town that we stayed in, Leuven. While that was our home base, we did make some trips to other towns in Belgium as well.

Leuven was our base, and we made trips into Brussels and Ghent.

Brussels' Grote Markt

Foremost among these was a trip to the capital itself, Brussels. Because its metropolitan area is a kind of hybrid border region between Flanders and Wallonia, and thus essentially multicultural and multilingual, Brussels is one of the most cosmopolitan cities of Europe. Not founded until the 10th century, it came onto the scene later than most of the other cities in the region, and grew slowly from a fortress and chapel that housed the relics of St. Gudula to an important hub on the trade routes between Ghent, Cologne, and Bruges. This economic importance eventually made it the effective capital of the Low Countries and thus an important stronghold of the Holy Roman Empire. Upon the latter's disintegration and eventual dissolution, Brussels and its surrounding area fell under the control of France and eventually Napoleon's forces, though in 1830, the Belgian Revolution began there. In the 20th century, it played an important role in international politics, housing the headquarters of NATO and the European Union, making it the effective capital city of the EU.

Some of Brussels' fine dining options, just off the Grote Markt

Brussels is a city of contrasts. While parts of it are beautiful, especially around the medieval Grote Markt, I found it as a whole to be rather ugly (although, admittedly, it's perhaps unfair to compare it with the charm of, say, Rome or Paris). Historically Catholic (though now non-practicing), modern Brussels has one of the largest and most influential Muslim populations in Europe. And while it has important historical and cultural importance for traditional Europe, more than half of Brussels' populations is of foreign origin. Yet, despite this, more of Brussels' immigrant population has acquired full Belgian citizenship than has the migrant population of any other major European city. It's an interesting and diverse place, to be sure.

St. Michael & St. Gudula Cathedral

St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral, named after the patron saints of the city, was quite impressive. Originally constructed in the Romanesque style in the 11th century, it was refurnished about 300 hundred years later in the high Gothic style. Its façade and interior were some of the better examples of that kind of architecture that I've seen, at least since my first trip to Europe in 2003. The cathedral is renowned for its ideal acoustics, and as luck would have it, we just so happened to visit in the middle of a Christmas children's concert, which featured some excellent vocal work and musicianship by the local youngsters. With the otherworldly harmonies of children's voices and with the church decked out in its Christmas best, it was a nice place to pause and appreciate the Christmas spirit.

Brussels' town hall

Some of the guild halls

The King's House

From the cathedral, our group made its way to the heart of the city, the medieval Grote Markt, or central square, which features another outstanding stadhuis (town hall) as well as the various guild halls of Brussels. In the medieval guild system, these halls were the centers for the associations of merchants, laborers, or craftsmen for particular industries, e.g. bakers, tailors, shipbuilders, grocers, etc. The guilds controlled labor (much like modern unions) as well as trade and production (like cartels) and even apprenticeship and skills, often operating as exclusive or secret societies. Granted charters by the ruler of the area, guilds controlled the business for their particular wares, from the raw materials to the finished product, and protected their monopolies by force if necessary. The guild houses of Brussels are probably the most famous in the world and representative of the opulence and importance they had in their time. The halls themselves became symbolic of their respective guilds, and they took on colorful names as a result, e.g. House of the Swan, the Golden Tree, the Mountain of Tabor, the She-Wolf. In addition to being the economic center of the city, the Grote Markt also housed government and administrative buildings, and even a royal house, should the royalty decide to visit.

The rest of our time in Brussels was spent walking around the city. We saw the famous Manneken Pis statue, walked through the Kunstberg (Hill of the Arts) and then walked up the Coudenberg hill to the Palace of Coudenberg and the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, though unable to visit the latter. We only had a day there, so we weren't able to make it to all of the place we would have liked, including the Royal Palace and the European Quarter, that part of the city that houses the EU's base of operations. As I'm sure will be the case with many of the places I'll visit, I hope to make it back there in the future to see more.

We also visited the Royal Galleries of Saint-Hubert, one of the older covered galleries in Europe, which functions as more or less an up-scale mall. It had some amazing chocolate shops, whose wares we delightfully sampled. Brussels is famous for having some of the finest cuisine in Europe, ranking among Paris and Barcelona in this regard, and certainly the finest of the world-famous Belgian chocolates are found there. The country is also very well known for its waffles, as you probably know, and we sampled several of these as well. The Brussels waffle is lighter, crispier, and usually rectangular, while the also-common Liege waffle is richer, heavier, chewier, and often comes in a more rounded shape. I preferred the latter, but both were excellent. They also come with a variety of toppings; I liked mine with just some powdered sugar on top, but most people enjoy theirs with chocolate, fruit, or slagroom -- whipped cream.

A fine chocolate shop in the Saint-Hubert Galleries

And, of course, any discussion of Belgian food would be incomplete without mentioning their superb beer. Though major corporations like InBev mass produce standard, relatively bland lagers, the traditional Belgian brews are among the most diverse in the world. There are more than a dozen standard types, with some 500 commonly produced beers in the country. Many of the best beers though come from the smaller of the 125 or so breweries in the country; altogether, there are more than 8000 Belgian beers available throughout the year. Each of these has its own glass, and it's very bad form to drink a Belgian beer in any glass other than its own. Don't even think about drinking it out of the bottle, and as far as Belgians are concerned, there's no such thing as beer from a can. Most agree that the very best Belgian beers are still the Trappist beers, those brews that are made entirely by Trappist monks on the site of their monastery and only as a means to remain monks rather than for profit. Only seven breweries still meet this qualification. Of the ones I tried, the Westvleteren beers (especially the "12") were the very best. Apparently, I'm not alone, as the Westvleteren 12 has been rated "The Best Beer in the World" by at least two beer connoisseur websites. Considering that, I feel privileged to have tried it!

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Although Brussels was nice, I enjoyed even more my trip to Ghent, located about 60 km northwest of Brussels and 90 km west-northwest of Leuven. Although still a major Belgian city, Ghent is much quieter today than it used to be. In the Middle Ages, it was one of the largest, richest, and most important cities in Europe.

A memorial to Jacob van Artevelde, with St. Jacob Church in the back right

A little more history, if you're interested. The oldest human settlement at the confluence of the Scheldt and Lys rivers can be dated to the Stone Age. There is evidence that the Romans had fortresses in the area, and the Franks drove out the native Celts from the region of Ghent around the 5th century AD, but the city was not really founded until the early 7th century, when St. Amand founded two abbeys in the area. Due to this monastic presence and the trade opportunities that existed by virtue of the Scheldt and Lys, Ghent began to grow rapidly. It attracted continual attention from the Viking invaders and was plundered twice in the 9th century. It recovered well, however, and soon became the dominant city of the region for trade, especially for English wool, and it was the European capital for the cloth industry. Because of its very advantageous economic partnership with England, Ghent and the rest of Flanders enjoyed good relations with the English. This often led to divisions within the medieval society, as the Flemish merchant class often sided with the English when wars arose, in subordination of and to the great consternation of their French lords. The most famous example of this was during the Hundred Years' War, when the local weaving magnate Jacob van Artevelde organized Flemish towns against the Count of Flanders (who was supporting France against England) in an effort to preserve the economic relationship between England and Flanders.

Enjoying Liege waffles in front of Ghent's belfry

St. Nicholas Church

The city suffered after the unsuccessful Revolt of Ghent in 1539, a reaction to higher taxes (used mostly to fund wars in Italy) placed on Ghent and the rest of Flanders by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and king of Spain. In the 16th and 17th century, too, Ghent continued to decline due to the religious wars of the time, and it passed hands several times between Calvinist and Catholic rulers. As a result of this upheaval, Ghent's importance as an international center for trade largely ended, although it recovered some of its regional influence in the 18th and 19th century with a revived (and mechanized) cloth industry. More significant to our history, the city was the site of the official end to the War of 1812 when the Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 18, 1814. However, news of the treaty didn't reach the U.S. until February 1815, several weeks after the Americans' decisive victory at the Battle of New Orleans.

St. Bavo Cathedral, and its Christmas market

Ghent is one of the most beautiful medieval cities I've been to, with a lot of surviving medieval architecture and a well-preserved central historical part to the city (sans automobiles). We tried to gain access to the impressive Gravensteen castle, but despite several brave attempts at breaching its walls, we were repulsed by fearsome city tourism officials. Ghent has several massive, magnificent Gothic churches in the city center, most of which are very close to each other. St. Jacob Church, St. Michael Church, and St. Nicholas Church are all within a few blocks of each other. The town belfry also dominates the city's skyline. Probably the most impressive structure though is St. Bavo Cathedral, just up the road from the belfry and St. Nicholas. Its single tower façade is, in a word, awesome; it has become a symbol of Ghent and its people in modern times.

The Ghent Altarpiece, closed...

The cathedral is most famous, however, for housing the Ghent Altarpiece, formally known as The Adoration of the Lamb by the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck, completed in 1432. It's one of the most famous northern Renaissance works, specifically in the Early Netherlandish style, and one of the largest of the time, measuring some 12 feet tall and 17 feet wide when open. The Ghent Altarpiece was commissioned by a wealthy merchant and his wife for the altar of the parish church St. John the Baptist, which would later become St. Bavo Cathedral when the city became its own diocese about a century later. Most historians agree that Hubert van Eyck originated the design and began the work on it and that his younger brother Jan (who would become the more famous artist in time) completed it after his death. The polyptych has 24 compartmented scenes, each of them painstakingly designed and most of them highly symbolic. As a whole, it is a visual depiction of the Christian theology of the salvation of humanity by God.

... and open

It can be displayed two ways, either open or closed. Closed, it shows a fairly sober depiction of Gabriel's Annunciation to Mary as well as a scene of the patrons of the piece in prayer in front of statues of Sts. John the Evangelist and John the Baptist. When opened, however, it displays a vibrant heavenly scene of Christ as the Lamb of God being adored by angels, saints, martyrs, Old Testament prophets, and more, as described in Revelation 7:9-12 Above the scene, the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist flank a divine figure whose specific identity is still much debated. He displays qualities of both God the Father and Christ as King, and most art authorities today believe the figure represents some amalgamation of both and thus is a depiction of the Trinity itself as one. Upon completion, it was immediately recognized as a masterpiece and was highly revered; Napoleon, for example, thought so highly of it that he dismantled it and moved it to the Louvre Palace in Paris. The altarpiece remained closed most of the time and was only opened on Sundays, feast days, and during the Easter season. It would have been especially striking during Mass, as the Agnus Dei prayer was said immediately prior to receiving the Eucharist: "Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us." The Ghent Altarpiece is undoubtedly one of the most stunning pieces of art, especially religious art, that I have ever seen. If you ever find yourself in Ghent, do NOT miss it.

The Graslei at dusk

Before leaving Ghent, we walked by the guild houses along the Graslei and Koornlei in the old harbor district of the city, and sampled some of the local beer. It was a delightful city to visit, especially at Christmas-time, and I hope to make it back there in the future. In the last installment of this little series of mine, I'll recap some travels to Amsterdam and Luxembourg.