Dendermonde, which is situated where by the River Dender enters the Scheldt River, is really a Medieval town full of significant heritage.
Two UNESCO Earth Heritage Web-sites make headlines: just one a Gothic Belfry, the opposite a beguinage that dates back to the thirteenth Century.
Ros Beiaard, a folkloristic horse that Dendermonde claimed to become well-known for, is yet another assert to fame. Ros Beiaard saved its grasp (Four Sons of Aymon), from remaining captured by Charlemagne.
This 800kg picket beast, that's ridden by four brothers who will be Medieval riders, is paraded all over Dendermonde just about every ten years, most a short while ago in 2020.
Ros Beiaard, a real VIP, is little question. It can be even the subject Dendermondes' town anthem.
Grote Markt
It truly is remarkable to think that Dendermonde's key square has been a gathering place for many hundreds of several years.
This Area was at first the outer bailey for the castle. Excavations have discovered an 11th-century cemetery.
The Vleeshuis (meathall) and town hall, with its Gothic belfry at the moment are at your recognize.
In 2004, the sq. was paved using a design by Harold Van de Perre.
Sit back again and enjoy a neighborhood tripel, dubbel or beer on the terraces. If you are feeling brave, You can even pair it with a bit of neighborhood specialty, headcheese, which has a dash mustard.
Each individual Monday, you can find marketplaces. In early December, a massive Xmas marketplace is held below.
Stadhuis
For its extraordinary belfry, which is among fifty six outlined towers in Belgium and Northern France, the thirteen-century city hall continues to be specified a UNESCO World Heritage Web site.
Dendermonde's Belfry was at first built being a corner tower to aid the city's cloth Corridor.
The building featured stepped gables and rows of niches with finely carved information. It absolutely was incorporated into the town corridor in 15th century.
Because the sixteenth century, the belfry has experienced a carillon. It absolutely was reinstalled in 1970 after the stop of WWI. On Sundays and Mondays involving eleven:00 and 12:00, you'll be able to delight in a live performance by the city’s carilloneur.
You'll be able to entry town corridor, belfry, and cloth corridor with a self-guided audioguide tour.
This is the distinctive knowledge that you will not choose to miss, Particularly Together with the high-quality artwork selection on the first floor. It is mostly from your 19th-century Dendermondse Faculty but will also includes functions by Piet Van de Ouderaa and Henry De Noble.
Vleeshuismuseum
Grote Markt's magnificent Late Gothic meat trading hall was built in 1462 to replace an older structure dating back to the thirteenth century.
The bottom ground was where local butchers could trade, and it was the only real location in Dendermonde they had been allowed to sell to the general public.
In the 1860s, the aged meat counters were being dismantled as well as corridor grew to become a lined vegetable industry.
The museum was set up in 1899 and survived the very first Globe War unharmed.
Inside, you will discover a mammoth skeleton that is definitely real and thirty,000 several years previous, centuries-old blades and firearms, in addition to a wood Merovingian and Saxon figurehead.
You can even find out about Dendermonde's culture and understand the town's processional giants in addition to Ros Beiaard, the hero horse.
Begijnhof
Lay religious Gals who did not get poverty vows lived Within this Group due to the fact its founding in 1288 and right until the Demise of the last beguine in 1975. The Sint-Alexiusbegijnhof has sixty one homes on a grassy trapezoidal sq., reconstructed at the end of the sixteenth century soon after an iconoclastic riot.
In 1998, the beguinage was designated a UNESCO Earth Heritage Internet site. A museum was also set up to maintain homes No. eleven,24, 25, and the Infirmary, which dates back again to 1709, all contributed to the maintenance of the site.
These structures are filled with antique home furnishings and appliances that supply Perception to the daily life of the beguine during the nineteenth and twentieth hundreds of years.
Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk
The attractive Sheldt Gothic Church with its octagonal tower has a great deal of treasures.
Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk gained its recent design and style in the event the earlier eleventh-century Romanesque developing was reworked between the 13th and fifteenth centuries.
The framework the thing is attached to church's east aspect is part of a chapterhouse, that has existed in some sort or An additional For the reason that twelfth Century.
Very first, you will discover paintings inside by Anthony van Dyck and Gaspar de Crayer.
It's also advisable to choose time to see the 12th century Romanesque baptismal font created from Tournai's blue-black limestone. Also, you'll want to look at the 17th-century Baroque Choir Display screen, the pulpit and other finely carved pieces of church home furniture which were created across the similar time.
The church treasury shimmers with website precious silver and gold liturgical products like monstrances, reliquaries, and a lot more.
Abdij van Dendermonde
In the guts of Dendermonde, you will find One more amazing monument: the Benedictine abbey at Vlasmarkt.
This church is devoted to St Peter and St Paul. It absolutely was founded in 1837 by 1 the final monks of Affligem Abbey. The monastery was ruined during the French Revolution of 1797. Dendermonde's abbey was built on the website of an previous Capuchin monastery from 16th century. It had been reconstructed while in the neoGothic model at the conclusion of nineteenth century.
A percentage of the Prinsenhof palace was also acquired via the monks.
Unfortunately, the complex was severely broken by fires through Globe War I and was rebuilt within the 1920s.
Dendermonde Tripel is really a remarkably prized abbey beer which the monks with the abbey make their residing from. It truly is darkish blond, prime-fermented and has a subtle sweet flavor.
Smaragdus is a fine herbal liqueur that can be used to be a digestif As well as in desserts.
Apart from the eye-catching, lower-essential basilica and monastic shop, the abbey remains shut to people other than on Whit Monday afternoon, when friends can have exceptional chance to see how a monastery operates in the twenty first Century.
Dendermonde-Puurs Steam Railway
A fourteen-kilometer heritage line runs between Dendermonde, Puurs and Antwerp. It is actually open up in July, August, and September.
A non-earnings society usually takes treatment in the railway's nine steam and diesel locomotives, in several states of restoration.
The trip requires you in the Antwerp and East Flanders countrysides in a very 1930s-era carriage. It takes about 70 minutes to receive from Baasrode-Noord, Dendermonde to Sint-Amands.
To view rolling stock, the railway's ongoing do the job and also to view the depot and yard in Dendermonde, It's also possible to pay a visit to the workshop and yard.
Gerechtsgebouw van Dendermonde (Justititiepaleis)
In Medieval periods, the Lords of Dendermonde lived on the existing Courtroom of First Occasion located to the left lender of Oude Dender.
The castle was provided to the Carmelite monastery in 1664. It had been afterwards wrecked in the French Revolution.
Following the destruction of the Neoclassical making, the grand neogothic courthouse that you simply see currently is the second.
The decoration with the facade was carried out by Oscar Sinia and Geo Verbanck, two outstanding sculptors.
Dendermonde's folkloristic horse Ros Beiaard (mounted from the 4 Sons of Aymon) could be discovered.
The facade also functions the coats of arms of Belgium's many judicial regions. Moreover, the tower of the palace is decorated with gilded Owls like a image for wisdom.
Bastion VIII
Dendermonde was enclosed by walls as many as a metre high plus a community of canals till the 20th century. This is the remnant of its history like a barrier fortress that shielded the Kingdom of France from the Dutch Republic.
It is possible to see proof of defensive buildings through the entire metropolis. When you've got a map, it is easy to recognize the route with the moat.
The previous bastion was demolished and turned into a landfill while in the west of Dendermonde.
The internet site was saved a few decades ago and is also now a character education and learning Centre, primarily geared in the direction of educational institutions.
It can be an awesome destination to have a stroll with your grown-ups, as it is so close to the city center.
A couple of boards with interpretive indicators recognize the former defenses. They are located in a very mosaic habitat of freshwater, scrub, and soaked woodland.
Wandelroute: Dendermonde Vestingstad
The vacationer office has created a walking trail of a few kilometres by Dendermonde's military services record.
The route is not really signposted but you can find a map and leaflet for free.
Bastions, ravelins and restored town gates are merely some of the sights you will see.
This leaflet involves thorough descriptions of every sight along with explanations from the complicated geopolitics that produced Dendermonde susceptible to invasion.