Things to do in Ghent

Landmark · Centre, on the Leie

Two facing quays of guild houses on the medieval grain harbour — the most photographed stretch of water in Flanders.

Local tip: Sit on the Graslei steps in the evening with something from a shop rather than a terrace; half the city does. The better view is from the Korenlei side or from the top of the Sint-Michielsbrug, which most visitors walk across without stopping on.

Landmark · Centre

A twelfth-century moated castle sitting bluntly in the middle of a working city, complete with gatehouse, keep and armoury.

Local tip: The audio guide is famously, deliberately comic — written and voiced as a sketch rather than a history lesson — and it is the reason locals bring visiting friends. Go early; the spiral stairs jam solid by midday and there is no way past anyone.

Neighborhood · Behind the Gravensteen

A knot of narrow medieval lanes that was a slum within living memory and is now the city's densest restaurant quarter.

Local tip: The lanes are barely wide enough for a car, which is why the atmosphere survives. Book: the good places have a dozen tables and Ghent eats late. Walk two minutes further to the Vrijdagmarkt if you want a terrace rather than a table.

Culture · Sint-Baafsplein

Home of the Van Eyck brothers' Adoration of the Mystic Lamb — the most stolen artwork in history, and a panel of it is still missing.

Local tip: The restoration that ran through the 2010s stripped centuries of overpaint and revealed a startlingly different Lamb; the reaction was worldwide and not entirely polite. Book a slot rather than queueing, and give it an hour — the visitor centre's augmented-reality guide is the rare case where the gimmick genuinely earns its place.

Food · Centre

The city's political square since the fourteenth century, and the old vegetable market beside it where the cuberdon carts stand.

Local tip: Tierenteyn-Verlent on the Groentenmarkt has been scooping mustard out of a wooden barrel since 1790 and is a shop, not an attraction — bring a jar back and they refill it. The Vrijdagmarkt has run a market on Fridays for something close to seven centuries and it is still a real one.

Culture · Off the Hoogpoort, centre

A single alley where painting the walls is not merely tolerated but officially permitted, and the artwork changes weekly.

Local tip: It is signposted as the Graffitistraatje and it is genuinely legal — the city set it aside as a free wall, so what you see was almost certainly painted over something better within the fortnight. Photograph it the day you find it. Almost every visitor walks past the entrance without seeing it.