Saint Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent
church in Ghent, Belgium
Saint Bavo's Cathedral, also known as Sint-Baafs Cathedral (Dutch: Sint Baafskathedraal), is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Ghent, Belgium. The 89-metre-tall (292 ft) Gothic building is the seat of the Diocese of Ghent and is named for Saint Bavo of Ghent. It contains the well-known Ghent Altarpiece, also called the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb.
History
The cathedral stands on the site of the former Chapel of St. John the Baptist, which was primarily of wooden construction and was consecrated in 942 by Transmarus, Bishop of Tournai and Noyon. Traces of a later Romanesque structure can be found in the cathedral's crypt. Construction of the Gothic church began around 1274.
In the subsequent period from the 14th through 16th centuries, nearly continuous expansion projects in the Gothic style were executed on the structure. A new choir, radiating chapels, expansions of the transepts, a chapter house, nave aisles and a single-tower western section were all added.
In 1539, as a result of the rebellion against Charles V, who was baptized in the church, the old Abbey of St.
“Saint Bavo's Cathedral, Ghent” enters the record as church in Ghent, Belgium. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Saint, Bavo's and Cathedral can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q938154. VIAF identifies the subject as 153606734. The Library of Congress control number is n80113905. Authority coordinates are 51.053, 3.727. 7 of 9 selected statements include explicit references; 5 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1274 and 1539.
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This entry incorporates text from “Saint Bavo's Cathedral, 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.