Ghent

Ghent

The city and municipality of Ghent is located in the Flemish region of Belgium. The capital and largest city of the province of East Flanders, it is the third largest city in the country. The city was originally founded as a settlement at the meeting point of the Rivers Scheldt and Leie, and in the Late Middle Ages it developed into one of the largest and wealthiest cities in northern Europe, with around 50 000 inhabitants in 1300. The archaeological evidence around the confluence of the Scheldt and the Leie shows human presence as far back as the Stone Age and the Iron Age. Many historians think that Ghent's older name, "Ganda", comes from the Celtic word ganda, meaning confluence. Although there are no written documents from the Roman era, archaeological studies confirm that the area around Ghent was still inhabited. When the Franks entered Roman lands from the end of the 4th to the 5th century, they brought their language with them, so Celtic and Latin were replaced by Old Dutch. Today, Ghent is known for its large public squares and marketplaces, the most important of which is the Vrijdagmarkt, which was the center of life in the medieval city. Among Ghent's many famous medieval monasteries, the most significant are the ruins of the 7th-century Abbey of St Bavo, the birthplace of John Gaunt and now home to the Lapidary Museum, and the remains of the Cistercian Abbey of Bylok, which now houses the archaeological museum and part of the city hospital.