Almost all the houses of the wealthier classes of Ghent are constructed after the Italian fashion, with wide portes-cochères, spacious courtyards, and lofty staircases; but along the quays and in the older streets there are still numerous specimens of the quainter and grander architecture of the 16th and 17th centuries. The industrial classes live for the most part in long monotonous rows of poor-looking houses. Among the public squares the most noteworthy are the Friday Market (Marche du Vendredi), where in former days the counts of Flanders were inaugurated and the trades unions used to assemble; the Kauter (the word in Flemish means field), which became the Place d’Armes in 1812, and is. the favourite rendezvous of the fashionable world; the Plaine de St Pierre, especially used for military reviews; the Corn Market, which is one of the busiest spots in the town; and the Place Sainte Pharailde, which contains the façade of the fish-market and the gate of the Counts’ Castle, and is annually the scene of the so-called Fair of the Little Presents (Preseηtjesmarkt). The Plaine des Recollets, which takes its name from the convent of the Reformed Franciscans (1225-1796), was in 1836 chosen as the site of the new court-house. Near the Friday Market is an enormous cannon, 18 feet long, 10 feet in girth, and nearly 3 feet wide at the mouth, formed in the same fashion as “Mons Meg” in Edinburgh Castle, and surnamed Dulle Gτiete, or “Mad Meg or Margaret.”

The cathedral of St Bavon (Flem. Baefs) ranks as one of the most splendid of the churches of Belgium. Though the original foundation dates from the 9th or 10th century, the crypt and choir of the actual edifice have no higher antiquity than the 13th century, and the other parts were not completed till the 16th. The roof of the nave has been erected since the destructive fire of 1822. Originally dedicated to St John, the church received its present name only in 1540, when Charles V. made it the seat of the collegiate chapter of the abbey of St Bavon; and it was not till 1559 that it was constituted a cathedral at the request of Philip II. of Spain. In its exterior St Bavon’s is rather heavy in style, but it is surmounted by a fine octagonal tower, which, before the destruction of the spire by lightning in 1603, had a height of 360 feet, and still reaches 270 feet. The interior is remarkable for the richness and variety of its decorations. The choir and transepts are lined with black marble, and the balustrades are of white or variegated marble. A statue of St Bavon in his ducal robes adorn3 the high altar, and in front are four tall copper candlesticks which belonged to Charles I., and bear the royal arms of England. Beneath the windows of the choir are affixed the arms of the knights of the golden fleece, whose last chapter was held by Philip II. in St Bavon’s in 1559. The chapels are twenty-four in number; their gates are of brass, and almost every available spot has its painting or statue. The eleventh is known as the Chapel of the Lamb, as it contains the central and principal portion of the famous Adoration of the Lamb painted by John Van Eyck in 1432. Hubert Van Eyck, his brother and compeer, and Margaret, his sister, lie buried in the crypt. The church of St Nicholas—an early Gothic structure, with a great tower of the 15th century and a modern portico—has the credit of being the oldest in the town; and St Michael’s, dating from about 1450, but frequently restored, is memorable as the scene of the worship of reason during the French Revolution. Previous to the Revolution there existed in Ghent a large number of convents and monasteries (thirtyseven establishments of this class, with 1122 inmates, are recorded in 1781); and one of its most famous institutions at the present day is the Béguinage of St Elizabeth, a community of about 600 or 700 nuns, who inhabit a separate quarter of the town, consisting of little brick-built cottages arranged in streets and squares within a common wall.

Among the secular buildings of Ghent one of the finest is the Hôtel de Ville, its northern façade being an exceptionally rich example of flamboyant Gothic of the 15th century, and its eastern façade presenting a curious contrast, with its rows of Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian columns after the style of the Italian Renaissance. The court-house or palais de justice is a heavy but imposing structure in the Romanesque manner, erected between 1835 and 1843 by the architect Roelandt at the common expense of the state, the province, and the town. The minor apartments of the lower floor have been all more or less sacrificed to the great Hall of the Lost Footsteps, which is 240 feet long and 70 feet wide. About the same time the same architect was entrusted with the designs for the casino, a building adapted for the flower-shows of the Botanical Society and the concerts of the choral union of St Cecilia. The so-called Government house, which is partly occupied by the provincial administration and partly by the governor as his residence, was assigned by Charles V. to the provost of St Bavon, became in 1581 the property of William of Orange (the Silent), at a later date served as episcopal palace, and in the time of Napoleon was the prefecture. The present episcopal palace was built in 1845 as an appendage to the cathedral.

With benevolent institutions of various kinds Ghent is abundautly supplied. A lunatic asylum, the Hospital of the Byloque, founded as early as 1225, a maternity hospital dating from 1827, a blind asylum (1854) due to the beneficent bequests of L. Van Caneghem, a deaf and dumb institution (1822), and an atelier de charité, or establishment for giving work to the unemployed, which has been in operation since 1817, are worthy of special mention. It would be less of a paradox than might be supposed if the great penitentiary (Rasphuis, or Maison de Force) had been included in the list; for it is remarkable, not only for the sumptuous style of its buildings, but for the philanthropic character of its administration. It was erected between 1772 and 1825 at a cost of 2,150,000 francs, and can accommodate 2600 prisoners.

The spacious university buildings were erected between 1819 and 1826, at the expense of the city, under the auspices of William I., king of Holland. They were designed by Roelandt in the Greek style, and one of the principal features is a portico after the model of the Pantheon at Rome. The university library, containing upwards of 100,000 volumes, and reckoned one of the most valuable in Belgium, was formerly the property of the town. Along with the royal athenaeum or high school, it occupies the old abbey of Baudeloo, founded by Baldwin of Constantinople in 1199. The abbey gardens were transformed in 1797 into a botanical garden, which now ranks as one of the finest in Europe. A royal academy for the encouragement of art, founded in 1751 by Charles Marissal, and a musical conservatory originated by the communal council in 1835 are both flourishing institutions; and the technical school with about 800 pupils is one of the very best in Belgium. The Natural History Society, dating from 1851, has established a zoological garden.

Though Ghent has no longer the industrial pre-eminence that it enjoyed in the 14th and 15th centuries, it is still the principal seat of the cotton and leather manufactures of Belgium. Flax-spinning, calico-printing, and sugar-refining are also extensively carried on, and there are engineering works, chemical works, iron-foundries, soapworks, paper-mills, and breweries. No fewer than sixty considerable firms, trading with Germany, France, Italy, and Russia, are engaged in commercial floriculture; and, as a consequence, the flower-shows of Ghent, as they were perhaps the earliest, are still among the finest exhibitions of the kind in Europe. The trade of the town, which deals mainly with the products and raw materials of the industries, is fostered by a good railway system and numerous canals. There is direct communication with the sea by a grand canal, which, however, unfortunately for the Belgians, enters the sea at Terneuse in Dutch territory. The harbour, completed in 1828, is capable of accommodating 400 vessels, and vessels drawing 17 feet of water can unload under the walls of the town. At Sas van Gend, 15 miles north of the city, on the frontier of Holland, there are sluices by which the district can be laid under water.

In 1812 Ghent had no more than 55,161 inhabitants; by 1856 they had increased to 109,668, and by 1869 to 121,469. The census of 1876 gave 127,653. Among the celebrities born in the city are Henry Goethals, distinctively Henry of Ghent, a famous theologian and member of the Sorbonne (d. 1295); Philippe Mouskes, the chronicler; P. Vanderberghe or Montanus, the geographer; Daniel Heinsius; Jacques van Zevecote,one of the principal Flemish poets; Lauren Delvaux, a sculptor; C. L. Diericx, the local historian; and J. Guislain, the lunacy physician.

The investigations of local antiquaries leave it still doubtful whether Ghent had a Roman origin, as Petrarch supposed (Gαndαvum Caesare conditore superbum'). That there was a military fortress on the spot in the 7th century, is proved by Baudemont’s life of St Amand, the first missionary of Christianity in the district {Acta Sanctorum vol. i.). Of the two monasteries founded by the saint in honour of St Peter, the one near the Antwerp gate was richly endowed by St Bavon, and his name became attached, not only to the building, but to the part of the city. About the year 1000 Baldwin Ironarm, first count of Flanders, took possession of Ghent, and a few years after he erected the Gravensteen or Counts’ Castle. Trade and manufactures, especially of linen and woollen, were encouraged by Baldwin and his successors, and by the close of the 12th century the men of Ghent were able to purchase commercial and political privileges, and to establish a form of municipal government. They established a court of justice, elected sheriffs, joined the association of the Hanse Towns, and obtained the free navigation of the Rhine from the emperor Frederick I. By the charter of 1192 they obtained the right of fortifying their city, and the first circumvallation carried out between that date and 1214 had a development of 6560 feet. By the end of the 13th century Ghent was a greater city than Paris. In the 14th, under the leadership of the famous Jacob van Artevelde and his son Philip (1332-1382), it raised frequent insurrections against the counts of Flanders, and took a prominent part in the political movements of the Low Countries. In 1385 it was obliged to submit to the duke of Burgundy, but its rights and privileges were left uninjured. At the commencement of the 15th century it had upwards of 40,000 men employed in the woollen manufactures alone, and was able to place in the field from 18,000 to 20,000 men-of-arms. When in 1452 the duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, imposed a tax on salt and grain, it rose in rebellion, but after a few years’ conflict the defeat at Gaveren left it at the duke’s mercy. The independence of the burghers was far from being crushed. 'Γhey showed themselves as turbulent as ever under Mary of Burgundy, who made the city her principal residence; and when she made certain unpopular concessions to Louis XL, they took the law into their hands, andon April 3, 1477, put to death in her presence the two councillors Hugonet and Himber-Court, whom she had intrusted with the mission. After her marriage at Ghent (August 17) with Maximilian of Austria, matters were more peaceful. On Mary’s death in 1482 the discontent of the people again broke out. In 1488 they restored their ancient form of government, and held out against the emperor Frederick, who led an army against them in person, but at length in 1492 they came to terms. In 1500 Charles V. was born in the palace at Ghent, the site of which is now occupied by the street called the Cour des Princes. His reign was a critical one for the city, for though it had a population of 175,000, it was but a drop in the bucket of his vast dominions, and he treated it with but little consideration. When in 1536 his sister Maria, at that time in command of the Netherlands, demanded the extraordinary subsidy of 1,200,000gold florins from Flanders, the citizens refused to contribute, and in 1539 they took arms in self defence. Charles himself appeared on the scene in 1540, forced them to submission, deprived them of their privileges, executed 26 of the principal leaders of the revolt, confiscated the public buildings, and erected a citadel at a total expense of 411,334 livres, the greater part of which had to be defrayed by Ghent itself. Even this did not crush the spirit of the city. It was by the pacification of Ghent, signed in the town-hall Nov. 8, 1578, that Holland and Zeeland, and the southern states of the Netherlands, formed an alliance against the Spanish supremacy, and three days after the Spanish garrison capitulated to the citizens. In 1584, however, the duke of Parma captured the town for Philip, and the citadel, which had been almost completely demolished, was restored. The attempts of the French in 1641 and 1642 to get possession of Ghent were frustrated by laying the country under water; but in 1678, though in the meanwhile the fortifications had been considerably extended, the feeble garrison under Don Francisco de Pardo was unable to defend the place against Marshals Humières, Luxembourg, Schomberg, and Vauban. Ghent continued in French hands till the peace of Nimwegen. It played an important part in the war of the Spanish succession, being captured in 1706 by Marlborough, recovered in 1708 by the French Marquis de Grimaldi, and again captured by Marlborough in 1709. In the war of the Austrian succession, Louis XV. made his entry into the city on 25th July 1745, and remained in possession till the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle in 1748. By order of Joseph II. in 1781, the citadel and fortifications were dismantled, and the grounds on which they were built were sold. Under the regime of the French Revolution the city was made the chief town of the department of the Scheldt.

By the peace of Paris (1814) it passed with Belgium to Holland; but it took an active part in the movement for the separation of the two kingdoms, and after the separation was accomplished (1830) continued to be the headquarters of the agitation of the Orange party. On the recommendation of the duke of Wellington, who visited the town in 1821 to give his opinion on the plans, a new citadel was erected according to the designs of Μ. Gey van Pittius (1822-1830).

See Jean de Thlelrodc, Chronique de St Baton; Sanderus, Verheerlykt Vlaenderen∙, De Jonghe, Gendtsche Geschiedenissen, 1746; Dieιicx, Topographie de l'ancienne ville de Gand (Ghent, 1808), Mémoires sur la ville de Gand (Ghent, 1814-15, 5 vols.), Mem. sur les lois, <tc., des Gantois (Ghent, 1817-18), Mém. sur le Droit public de la ville de Gand (Ghent, 1819), and Het Gentsch Charterboeckje (Ghent, 1826); Gachard, Delations des troubles de Gand sous Charles Quint (Brussels, 1854-5,3 vols.); P. C. Yan der Meersch, Memorienboek der Stad Ghent (Ghent,

1853); and “Mémoire sur la ville de Gand considérée comme place de guerre,” in Mémoires Couronnés de Vacad. royale de Belgique, tom. xxr, 1851-53 (Brussels,

1854); C. L. Gyselynck, Guide de la ville de Gandprécédé d’une notice historique, (Ghent, n. d.).

GHENT, Jodocus, or Justus, of (1465-75). The public records of the city of Ghent have been diligently searched, but in vain, for a clue to the history of Justus or Jodocus, whom Vasari and Guicciardini called Giusto da Guanto. Flemish annalists of the 16th century have enlarged upon the scanty statements of Vasari, and described Jodocus as a pupil of Hubert Van Eyck. But there is no source to which this fable can be traced. The registers of St Luke’s guild at Ghent comprise six masters of the name of Joos or Jodocus who practised at Ghent in the 15th century. But none of the works of these masters have been preserved, and it is impossible to compare their style with that of Giusto. It was between 1465 and 1474 that this artist executed the Communion of the Apostles which Vasari has described, and modern critics now see to the best advantage in the museum of Urbino. It was painted for the brotherhood of Corpus Christi at the bidding of Frederick of Montefeltro, who was introduced into the picture as the companion of Caterino Zeno, a Persian envoy at that time on a mission to the court of Urbino. From this curious production it may be seen that Giusto, far from being a pupil of Hubert Van Eyck, was merely a disciple of a later and less gifted master, who took to Italy some of the peculiarities of his native schools, and forthwith commingled them with those of his adopted country. As a composer and draughtsman Giusto compares unfavourably with the better known painters of Flanders; though his portraits are good, his ideal figures are not remarkable for elevation of type or for subtlety of character and expression. His work is technically on a level with that of Gerard of St John, whose pictures are preserved in the Belvedere at Vienna. Vespasian, a Florentine bookseller who contributed much to form the antiquarian taste of Frederick of Montefeltro, states that this duke sent tc⅛the Netherlands for a capable artist to paint a series of “ancient worthies” for a library recently erected in the palace of Urbino. It has been conjectured that the author of these “worthies,” which are still in existence at the Louvre and in the Barberini palace at Rome, was Giusto. Yet there are notable divergences between these pictures and the Communion of the Apostles. Still, it is not beyond the range of probability that Giusto should have been able, after a certain time, to temper his Flemish style by studying the masterpieces of Santi and Melozzo, and so to acquire the mixed manner of the Flemings and Italians which these portraits of worthies display. Such an assimilation, if it really took place, might justify the Flemings in the indulgence of a certain pride, considering that Raphael not only admired these worthies, but copied them in the sketch book which is now the ornament of the Venetian Academy. There is no ground for presuming that Giusto da Guanto is identical with Justus d’Allamagna who painted the Annunication (1451) in the cloisters of Santa Maria di Castello at Genoa. The drawing and colouring of this wall painting shows that Justus d’Allamagna was as surely a native of South Germany as his homonym at Urbino was a born Netherlander.