St. Michiels church in Ghent

The Sint-Michiels church has a long construction history. Already in the 11th century, a chapel was built there by the Saint Bavo abbey. The construction of the present church was probably taken in the early-Gothic period. After many interruptions, the works were not finished until 1672; the tower remained unfinished. Even though the construction of the church took more than 200 years, it still exhibits a remarkable unity in form and style.

Picture by Pixabay

The Sint-Michiels church therefore also counts as a typical example of the experience of Gothic in an era of renaissance and baroque. Her exceptional homogeneity makes her a serene church and a beacon of rest in Ghent city center. In the Sint-Michielskerk you can see a number of special works of art, including a sculpture by Rombaut Pauwels, and paintings by Otto van Veen, Jan Boeckhorst and Anthony Van Dyck.

Popular posts from this blog

The castle that became famous in Hollywood

Image
Belgium has a lot of castles, actually, it has the most castles of all European countries. They come in all shapes and sizes. But there is one castle that strikes every imagination, castle Nottebohm. Located in the north of Antwerp, in the village of Brecht, this remarkable building seems to be escaped from some fantastic Hollywood movie or even more a Pixar animation cartoon. The design of the house is done in a very strange way, in an eclectic style incorporating elements from the neo-Flemish Renaissance, the traditional brick and sandstone style and the cottage style, all combined. Architect Ernest Pilgrims draw the plans for the castle. It was built in 1834 by the family Nottebohm as a summerhouse. The family used it till 1943 when the German army occupied it in the second World War. After the war, the family didn't use it a lot anymore and in 1950 they rent the castle as a hotel and restaurant. Later the company who rented the castle went broke and the family had the plan to
Read more

Belgian kids got to drink beer during their school lunch

Image
There are almost 800 different kinds of beer in Belgium. One kind was very popular till the70's, it was even given to kids at school during their lunch break. Beer to kids? You must be kidding! Well, let's go a bit further into this. The beers we are talking about were so-called table beers, a kind of beer that was specially made for people who can't drink alcohol. So it's was a kind of alcohol-free beer, a kind, because there was some alcohol in it. between 1 and 4 percent alcohol. The most popular table beer was Piedboeuf, it had 1.1 percent alcohol in it and there was a lot of sugar added to make it as sweet as Coca-Cola. A good marketing strategy made that it was well distributed in almost all schools in Belgium. The reason was that it would be very healthy for them, because of the natural ingredients and of course the sugar. It would make them grow fast and strong. It would even be good for pregnant women and for women that were breastfeeding their baby'
Read more

How the Belgians founded New York

Image
In order to avoid any confusion in this story, it is important to know that in the sixteenth century, the Netherlands covered a part of northern France and Lorraine, Belgium, Luxembourg, and the present Netherlands. Its inhabitants were called the Belgians, and the maps represented the country in the shape of a lion: the "Leo Belgicus". Besides, numerous maps from the sixteenth century showed this territory under the name of Belgium. The latter failed into disuse for the benefit of the Netherlands and only reappeared in 1789 on the occasion of the first Belgian revolution. In 1831 Belgium became an independent country. Today Belgium is a lot smaller and is divided into two big regions mostly based on the language they speak in that particular region. In the north, there is Flanders where they speak Flemish (Dutch) and in the south, there is the Walloon part where they speak French. Almost in the center and between the two parts is the region of the capital Brussels.
Read more