Dendermonde, which is situated the place the River Dender enters the Scheldt River, is often a Medieval city rich in important heritage.
Two UNESCO World Heritage Sites make headlines: one a Gothic Belfry, one other a beguinage that dates back again on the 13th Century.
Ros Beiaard, a folkloristic horse that Dendermonde claimed to be famed for, is yet another declare to fame. Ros Beiaard saved its master (4 Sons of Aymon), from staying captured by Charlemagne.
This 800kg picket beast, and that is ridden by four brothers who are Medieval riders, is paraded all-around Dendermonde just about every ten many years, most recently in 2020.
Ros Beiaard, a real VIP, is without doubt. It is even the subject Dendermondes' town anthem.
Grote Markt
It truly is incredible to believe Dendermonde's main sq. is a gathering place for hundreds of yrs.
This Room was originally the outer bailey for the castle. Excavations have exposed an eleventh-century cemetery.
The Vleeshuis (meathall) and the town corridor, with its Gothic belfry are now at your see.
In 2004, the square was paved using a design by Harold Van de Perre.
Sit back again and luxuriate in a neighborhood tripel, dubbel or beer on the terraces. If you are feeling courageous, You can even pair it with a piece of area specialty, headcheese, by using a dash mustard.
Every single Monday, there are markets. In early December, an enormous Xmas market is held listed here.
Stadhuis
For its impressive belfry, which is one of fifty six listed towers in Belgium and Northern France, the 13-century metropolis corridor is selected a UNESCO World Heritage Internet site.
Dendermonde's Belfry was at first constructed being a corner tower to assistance the town's fabric Corridor.
The developing highlighted stepped gables and rows of niches with finely carved aspects. It was integrated into the town corridor in fifteenth century.
Since the 16th century, the belfry has experienced a carillon. It absolutely was reinstalled in 1970 after the stop of WWI. On Sundays and Mondays involving 11:00 and 12:00, it is possible to love a concert by the city’s carilloneur.
You'll be able to entry town corridor, belfry, and fabric corridor on a self-guided audioguide tour.
This can be a exclusive practical experience that you will not want to miss, In particular While using the fine art collection on the very first flooring. It is usually from your 19th-century Dendermondse College and also features is effective by Piet Van de Ouderaa and Henry De Noble.
Vleeshuismuseum
Grote Markt's magnificent Late Gothic meat investing corridor was built-in 1462 to interchange an more mature structure dating back to the thirteenth century.
The bottom ground was wherever community butchers could trade, and it absolutely was the one place in Dendermonde they have been allowed to promote to the public.
Within the 1860s, the old meat counters were being dismantled as well as the hall turned a included vegetable current market.
The museum was recognized in 1899 and survived the primary Entire world War unharmed.
Inside, you'll find a mammoth skeleton that is serious and thirty,000 yrs outdated, centuries-old blades and firearms, in addition to a wood Merovingian and Saxon figurehead.
You can even study Dendermonde's tradition and learn about town's processional giants and also Ros Beiaard, the hero horse.
Begijnhof
Lay religious Women of all ages who failed to get poverty vows lived Within this Group due to the fact its founding in 1288 and right up until the death of the final beguine in 1975. The Sint-Alexiusbegijnhof has 61 houses over a grassy trapezoidal square, reconstructed at the conclusion of the 16th century after an iconoclastic riot.
In 1998, the beguinage was selected a UNESCO Entire world Heritage Web site. A museum was also founded to protect houses No. eleven,24, 25, as well as Infirmary, which dates back again to 1709, all contributed to the upkeep of the positioning.
These properties are stuffed with antique furnishings and appliances that deliver insight into your lifestyle of the beguine through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk
The gorgeous Sheldt Gothic Church with its octagonal tower has lots of treasures.
Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk received its present style and design when the past 11th-century Romanesque constructing was reworked between the 13th and fifteenth centuries.
The framework the thing is attached to church's east aspect is an element of a chapterhouse, that has been around in a few variety or An additional For the reason that twelfth Century.
Very first, there are actually paintings inside by Anthony van Dyck and Gaspar de Crayer.
It's also advisable to choose time to see the twelfth century Romanesque baptismal font made from Tournai's blue-black limestone. Also, you must think about the 17th-century Baroque Choir Display, the pulpit together with other finely carved parts of church furnishings that were made across the very same time.
The church treasury shimmers with important silver and gold liturgical items like monstrances, reliquaries, and even more.
Abdij van Dendermonde
In the center of Dendermonde, you will see another outstanding monument: the Benedictine abbey at Vlasmarkt.
This church is dedicated to St Peter and St Paul. It had been Launched in 1837 by just one the final monks of Affligem Abbey. The monastery was ruined in the French Revolution of 1797. Dendermonde's abbey was constructed on the website of an previous Capuchin monastery from 16th century. It had been reconstructed while in the neoGothic model at the conclusion of 19th century.
A portion of the Prinsenhof palace was also bought by the monks.
Sadly, the sophisticated was severely broken by fires in the course of Entire world War I and was rebuilt while in the nineteen twenties.
Dendermonde Tripel can be a hugely prized abbey beer the monks with the abbey make their residing from. It truly is darkish blond, best-fermented and has a subtle sweet taste.
Smaragdus is usually a great herbal liqueur which might be used as a digestif As well as in desserts.
Aside from the eye-catching, lower-crucial basilica and monastic shop, the abbey continues to be shut to website visitors besides on Whit Monday afternoon, when visitors may have rare possibility to look at how a monastery operates inside the 21st Century.
Dendermonde-Puurs Steam Railway
A fourteen-kilometer heritage line operates among Dendermonde, Puurs and Antwerp. It's open up in July, August, and September.
A non-financial gain Culture requires treatment of your railway's 9 steam and diesel locomotives, in numerous states of restoration.
The experience can take you throughout the Antwerp and East Flanders countrysides inside a 1930s-period carriage. It requires about 70 minutes to obtain from Baasrode-Noord, Dendermonde to Sint-Amands.
To see rolling inventory, the railway's ongoing function also to look at the depot and yard in Dendermonde, You may as well check out the workshop and yard.
Gerechtsgebouw van Dendermonde (Justititiepaleis)
In Medieval situations, the Lords of Dendermonde lived with the present Courtroom of Initial Occasion located to the left lender of Oude Dender.
The castle was provided to some Carmelite monastery in 1664. It absolutely was later wrecked throughout the French Revolution.
Once the destruction from the Neoclassical making, the grand neogothic courthouse which you see now is the second.
The decoration with the facade was completed by Oscar Sinia website and Geo Verbanck, two popular sculptors.
Dendermonde's folkloristic horse Ros Beiaard (mounted through the 4 Sons of Aymon) can be determined.
The facade also features the coats of arms of Belgium's different judicial locations. In addition, the tower with the palace is decorated with gilded Owls as a symbol for knowledge.
Bastion VIII
Dendermonde was enclosed by partitions as much as a metre significant and a network of canals until eventually the 20th century. That is a remnant of its record as being a barrier fortress that safeguarded the Kingdom of France within the Dutch Republic.
You are able to see evidence of defensive constructions through the city. For those who have a map, it is a snap to identify the route from the moat.
The former bastion was demolished and became a landfill during the west of Dendermonde.
The positioning was saved several many years back and is now a nature schooling Heart, generally geared towards colleges.
It really is a terrific destination to have a stroll with all your developed-ups, as it's so near town Centre.
A few boards with interpretive signs determine the former defenses. They are located inside a mosaic habitat of freshwater, scrub, and wet woodland.
Wandelroute: Dendermonde Vestingstad
The tourist Workplace has produced a walking trail of a few kilometres as a result of Dendermonde's military history.
The route is not signposted but you can get a map and leaflet for free.
Bastions, ravelins and restored town gates are merely some of the sights you'll see.
This leaflet contains in depth descriptions of each sight as well as explanations of the complex geopolitics that made Dendermonde liable to invasion.