Saint Michael's Church — Attraction in Ghent

St. Michael's Church is a late Gothic style church in the city centre of Ghent. This is a large church that has limited visitation hours during winter months (October to April) of 2-5pm on Saturdays only. The church is more accessible from 1 April to the end of September when it is supposedly open from Monday to Saturday (2-5pm).

With limited opening times, you'll have to target afternoon visits between April and the end of September or be lucky to be around on Saturday afternoons the rest of the year. Otherwise, you can only walk around and look at the church's Gothic style exterior.

Historical documents suggests the churches history stems back to at least the early 12th century with small parish to St. Michael being located at this location. The present Gothic style building was started in 1440. Multiple phases of constructions spaced over ensuing centuries as well as 17th century reconstructions provide us with the St. Michael's Church that you can see today.

Interestingly, notice the tower at the front of the church isn't complete. It just sort of stops midway up and is capped off with a flat roof supposedly put here in the early 19th century.

In the end, St. Michael's is an imposing building in the city of Ghent but might be difficult for you to enter to see its interior due to limited opening times during much of the year. If this is the case, you can have a look from the St. Michael's Bridge and the small square in front of the church for a few minutes, then continue on with other sightseeing...

The Church of St. Michael the Archangel is located on the Sint-Michielsplein in Ghent, Belgium.

A chapel dedicated to Archangel Michael was built on this site in the 12th century. She burned twice and was restored twice. By the early 15th century, the church had fallen into disrepair and was too small for the sprawling city. In 1440, construction began on a new Gothic church. The main nave and transept were built in the early 1500s, but in the second half of the 16th century, construction work almost stopped due to the unrest associated with the beginning of the Reformation.

The construction of the church continued in 1623 - a choir with an ambulatory and a crown of chapels were built, made in the late Gothic style. Due to financial problems, the western tower was only partially rebuilt, and only after 1828 was it provided with a flat roof. At the beginning of the 20th century, the western portal was restored, and in 1967 the restoration of the crown of the chapels began.

The church houses many paintings and sculptures by famous masters, including the work of Anthony van Dyck "The Crucifixion"...

⛪ Sint-Michielskerk, Ghent – Sound & Stone

In the middle of Ghent stands the late Gothic Sint-Michielskerk - a building built from the 15th to the 19th century. Century and today shows a rare mixture of medieval severity and neo-Gothic details.

🎼 Above the entrance stands the organ of Pierre Van Peteghem (1853), embedded in a neo-Gothic case. Their sound combines French-romantic fullness with Flemish craftsmanship. It is crowned with an allegorical figure that symbolically watches over the music.

🎨 The baroque pulpit tells the vocation of the apostles Peter and Andrew in a dramatic wood and marble sculpture - a work that seems almost alive.

Those who linger here will feel how architecture, sculpture and music merge into a single experience.

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