The Krook
This architectural work of art is a unique meeting place for residents, students and visitors. You can meet other people there, discover culture, enjoy a quiet drink or even try out innovations and technologies like 3D printing and virtual reality for yourself. As well as connecting people, the building links the Historic Centre with the Art Quarter.
Various institutions work together and offer services at the site. They are known collectively as ‘the inhabitants of De Krook’. In addition to the city library, Imec (the Flemish research centre for nanoelectronics and digital technologies) and UGent are housed at De Krook.
The building also includes a multi-purpose room, a study room and a reading café.
The monumental building, which incorporates works by artist Michaël Borremans, was designed by the Ghent architecture firm Coussée & Goris Architecten and their partner TV RCR Aranda Pigem Vilalta Arquitectes. This Spanish architecture firm also won the Pritzker Prize this year, the highest international distinction for architecture!
Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent (MSK)
The strength of the Museum of Fine Arts (MSK) in Ghent, one of the oldest museums in Belgium, lies in the varied nature of its collection, which is nothing short of remarkable. Never before have old masters and modernists hung side-by-side so perfectly as in this iconic museum building.
At the end of the 18th century, Ghent was under French rule and many of the city’s art treasures were seized. Some of them can still be seen in the Louvre in Paris today. Rebellious Ghent wasn’t having any of it, and slowly began to establish a wide-ranging art collection, searching for years to find an appropriate building. The ideal location was found in the building designed by the architect Van Rysselberghe in the Citadelpark, a temple to the arts with a fantastic feeling of spaciousness and a lot of light.
The collection, which ranges from Hieronymus Bosch to Rubens and Magritte, has never been shown more attractively than it is today. It covers an enormous variety of paintings, statues, drawings, etchings and tapestries, from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. An auditorium, a library, a children’s workshop and a brasserie turn the MSK into a contemporary, multipurpose complex where you can spend many a pleasant hour surrounded by beauty during your weekend trip to Ghent.
Ghent City Museum (STAM)
The STAM is the ideal place to start your cultural holiday in Ghent, an unmistakeably contemporary building against a historic backdrop. Ghent is a city of every era, and the same applies to the modern Ghent City Museum: the 14th-century abbey, 17th-century convent and new 21st-century building all form part of the STAM.
The STAM tells the story of Ghent from the Middle Ages to the present day, with imaginative collections and interactive multimedia. The past, present and future of the city are presented in a clear and interesting way: from mediaeval metropolis to city of knowledge and culture.
The eye-catcher at Ghent City Museum, the STAM, is a gigantic aerial photograph of Ghent (measuring 300 m2!) that you are allowed to walk all over. Use the multimedia app to see Ghent in detail in four different centuries. ‘Views of Ghent’ shows a view of the city in 1534, maps from 1614 and 1912 and a contemporary aerial photograph.
