Book Tower

The Book Tower is a slender, concrete skyscraper that rises above the skyline of Ghent, topped by a glass lantern that glows at night. Architect Henry van de Velde designed this modernist library for Ghent University in the nineteen thirties, intentionally shaping it like a lighthouse for knowledge. During the Second World War, German soldiers occupied the building, but they famously never discovered the secret radio transmitter hidden in the ventilation shafts where university staff shared intelligence with the Belgian resistance.