Belfry of Ghent
medieval tower in Ghent, Belgium
The Belfry of Ghent (Dutch: Belfort van Gent) is one of three medieval towers that overlook the old city centre of Ghent, Belgium; the other two belonging to Saint Bavo's Cathedral and Saint Nicholas' Church. Its height of 91 metres (299 ft) makes it the tallest belfry in Belgium. The belfry of Ghent, together with its attached buildings, belongs to the set of Belfries of Belgium and France, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Construction history
Construction of the tower began in 1313 after a design by master mason Jan van Haelst. His plans are still preserved in the Ghent City Museum. After continuing intermittently through wars, plagues and political turmoil, the work reached completion in 1380. It was near the end of this period that the gilded dragon, brought from Bruges (in fact the Dragon was made in Ghent and was placed on top of the tower in 1377), assumed its place atop the tower. The uppermost parts of the building have been rebuilt several times, in part to accommodate the growing number of bells.
The local architect Lieven Cruyl made a design for a Baroque spire in 1684. His design was not implemented and in 1771 the campanile was finished with a spire after a design by architect Louis 't Kindt.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q815443. Authority coordinates are 51.054, 3.725. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1313, 1380, 1377 and 1684.
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This entry incorporates text from “Belfry of Ghent” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.