Gent City Hall

The Gent City Hall, or Stadhuis, features two distinct faces on the street corner. The side along Hoogpoort displays ornate, late Gothic stone carvings with dozens of niches designed for statues. A few steps away, the facade on Botermarkt shifts into a restrained, Renaissance style with columns and round arches. Construction began in fifteen eighteen, but political disputes and financial gaps halted the work for decades. Local leaders once kept the city archives in the basement, protected by heavy iron doors.