Ghent. City of all Times

The history of Ghent fires the imagination. The city expanded from Celtic settlements at the confluent of the Lys and Escaut rivers. In the Middle Ages, it grew to become the greatest city of the Low Countries. Its clothing industry secured its reputation throughout Europe. After a brief Calvinist spell, the city slowly declined until the late 18th century, when the cotton industry made Ghent into one of the first industrial cities of the continent.

Today, Ghent prospers, mainly thanks to its port and university. Seeing that the reference book, Gand. Apologie dune ville rebelle has been unavailable for many years, the time had come to publish a new synthesis. More than a history book, Gand. Ville de tous les temps is a topical guidebook designed to read the city's history. Its authors start off from the contemporary urban space, the streets, the university's four towers, and the typically Ghent traces of rich past and the typically traces of a rich past, the Gentse Feesten, the swearwords and the songs, the Stroppendragers (slipknot bearers) and other urban legends and take the reader on a historic journey through a city that has become an imaginary museum.