Ghent

The medieval giant where the Leie and the Scheldt meet, once one of the largest and richest cities in Europe, a cloth town of tens of thousands of weavers that repeatedly rose against its counts, its kings and even its emperor. Its skyline is a row of three towers, Saint Nicholas's Church, the civic Belfry and Saint Bavo's Cathedral, and Saint Bavo's holds the Ghent Altarpiece, the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb by the brothers Van Eyck, one of the most important and most coveted paintings in the world. Below the towers the old harbour survives along the Graslei and Korenlei, and in the middle of the city stands the moated Castle of the Counts, planted to overawe a rebellious town, near the Friday Market of uprisings and the giant cannon Dulle Griet. Read the rebel city at your own pace.