Photo Galleries
Ghent Museums
August 2015
Ghent’s local history museum (known by its Flemish acronym, STAM) is full of wonderful medieval and Renaissance artifacts from the religious, political, military, and commercial life of the city. When we were there, it also featured Lego versions of some of Ghent’s most famous buildings (and a vast table of Legos for visitors like us to play with). More modest but equally interesting is the Van Alijn museum, set in a 1363 almshouse and dedicated to showing everyday life in Ghent in the 19th and 20th centuries. The city also has a great, quirky design museum, which melds modernist objects with an 18th-century mansion. (Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take pictures in most of it.)
STAM, Ghent's museum of local history, starts with a huge photo of the city you can walk on
You have to put booties over your shoes before walking on the Ghent photo floor
A 12-century contract involving Ghent's access to the Rhine River, with the seal of the local archbishop
Illuminations in a book from about 1460
A 16th-century treaty between Flanders and Brabant, with seals from the towns in those regions
More wonderful seals on a medieval document
A late portrait of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who was born in Ghent
This illustration in a 15th-century Bible used lots of precious blue paint made from ground lapis lazuli
One of the original rooms from the former convent where the STAM museum is located
This local lord, Hugh II, is one of the few surviving 13th-century tomb effigies in Belgium
Two of Ghent's landmarks, the university library and the spire of St. Bavo's cathedral, built from Legos
More Lego spires: St. Bavo's cathedral, the city bell tower, and St. Nicholas's church
Chris can never pass up Legos
A modern chandelier we fell in love with in Ghent's design museum
This chandelier looks like a galaxy of stars
A playfully huge urn in the courtyard of the design museum
This building from 1363, originally an almshouse for elderly women, houses the Van Alijn Museum, which focuses on historical objects of everyday life
The chapel and tower of the almshouse
The interior courtyard of the almshouse, now the museum cafe
A docent at the museum pauses for a drink with some visitors
Looking back through the door of the courtyard
Old bikes on display in the museum
Among the preserved interiors of Ghent shops are this 19th-century pharmacy
A food and dry goods shop, complete with scales
Barber shop
A collection of sculpted tobacco pipes
The funniest rooms in the Van Alijn museum are the ones showing life in Ghent in the late 20th century. We remember these 1980s icons well!
More 1980s goodness
The 1970s room (including an 8 track cassette player)
The 1960s room
Highlights of the 1960s room were the standing hairdryer and the portable typewriter
