Day 18: Medieval Gent

Today we took a tram to the medieval city of Gent, where human activity coincides with the existing geography. Gent was a major port and an important industrial city for its time.

There are instances of multiple groups of people coming into this region to live. While there is evidence that there have been people here since prehistory, the first reports of people living in Gent are from Roman antiquity in attempts to expand the Roman Empire. The second settlement of people are from the 6th century, when clergymen from southern Italy traveled north to go to Ireland. Remember St. Patrick? Anyway, these monks then traveled throughout the rest of Europe to spread Christianity. The clergymen were apparently so charmed by Gent that not one, but two abbeys were created—two abbeys that were in constant competition with each other. Finally, a third settlement of businessmen found their way into Gent in the 19th century. These businessmen haven’t left Gent since.

First of all, it should be kept in mind that more people lived in this city in the Middle Ages than they do today. In the 14th century, Gent had a population of 64,000, and it was still expanding. Gent was also the biggest industrial city of its time (its competitor being Bruges). Given the implications both of these factors have, it shouldn’t be a surprise that Gent needed a sound and well-organized infrastructure to function. There were many of these “structures” that were pointed out to us throughout the tour.

Religion played a very important role in Gent's history. After all, some of the first settlers here were monks from the original abbeys in this area. There were many churches, as everyone had to attend service. It was amazing...they were practically right next to each other! Each church was representative for different parishes, and they were HUGE. There were also the mendicants, who served as social reformers and believed that religion should be close to real people. The mendicants were the go-between for the rich and the poor.

In terms of social structure, there were 54 institutions for the purpose of social help. These include hospitals, housing for the elderly and the widowed, and shelter for wanderers, among other things. The only surviving social institution is the House of the Alijn, a house for the elderly since 1350. It was constructed as the result of a war between two families: the Rijn and Alijn. Like most things here, there is a myth and reality to the place.

The myth is that a man from the Rijn and a man from the Alijn fell in love with the same girl. The man from the Rijn killed the man from Alijn and ran away with the girl to avoid execution. Or something like that. The reality is that there were many more reasons besides that reason, which may or may not have actually been a reason. Wut. For a repatriation of sorts, the family members of Rijn had to build that house instead of finding the missing man from Rijn. It was a win-win, I guess: The Rijn family didn't have to see one of their own become executed, and the city got a snazzy new building!

Establishing political structure is always a challenge, isn't it? Things depended heavily on the budget of the city and how to make people pay taxes. These decisions were made in the town hall and the belfry. In this sense, the regional counts had more power than the king did himself. The Count of Flanders was very important due to the economic prestige of the place and was made ruler of the Byzantine Empire. Still, there were many tensions among the townsfolk, and many statements were made of political importance via statues on houses and monuments.

The economic heart of the city is the harbor. Here, you can see many of the buildings that have been around for a while and what they were used for. The professor told us how you can tell the difference between authentic buildings and those that have been reconstructed: the authentic buildings have limestone still intact, while the newer buildings have brick. Simple enough, I suppose.

In the central square, there is a statue of a hero pointing to the direction of England. Gent needed England a long time ago as the city was controlled by France. There is a story of a man who tried to escape and open a port to England. But as they say, "You either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." Or was it just that all heroes die in the end? I don't know, pop culture. You tell me.

OH YOU.

There is also a building dedicated to the Socialist movement. Karl Marx actually came from Germany to Belgium to start the movement and finish his Communist Manifesto. The current mayor of Gent is actually socialist, and it's apparently a running trend in that office.

Gent was very beautiful. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it hadn't been raining ridiculous amounts, though. And maybe even then, if I had an umbrella.