Ghent.The boat man’s story. This is how it went…

Posted bysandyroybessandbugzyPosted inAutumn in Italy 2022

The payment for sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life because Jesus Christ our Lord died on a cross.

Romans 6: 23 (Sandy’s understanding)
… I hope you enjoy your time. Our city is on the confluence of the Leie and Scheldt rivers. Ghent grew rapidly in the 12th century. All the merchants brought their grain to a main dock to get a good price. For this pleasure they paid a quarter of the grain, called a staple. With this the city built fine buildings. There is a saying in Belgium ” stone rich”. This refers to how they built, in expensive stone. There is only one wooden building left.
Notice mannequin piss. He is on the white building. He represents the tanners. Tanning needed uric acid. Adults drank too much beer making their urine acid so urine from children was bought by the tanners to make the leather soft.
Look at these buildings they are all overlooking the grain dock . (I didn’t get them all in)
There
is a building for grain store, the price setting and selling, the sailors’ billet and next door with two swans swimming in opposite directions, the ladies for temporary relationships.
Then a castle in the middle of the city.
12th century Gravensteen Castle.
A moated castle built by the counts of Flanders.
Showing their power and strength. The last time the castle was besieged was in 1945. Ghent is a university city and the students besieged it because the price of beer was increased!
The meat house.
Meat a luxury that rich people ate but
most others, in the middle ages only ate meat once a week.
Ghent is known now for its market gardening and a great flower show that it holds every 5 years.
Then there is this last remaining gate into this city. During one of the battles the people of Ghent drowned their enemy by opening this gate and flooding where they were camped.
A non- violent battle !(?)
Some blue, green, pinkish hydrangeas with open faced sunflowers of yellow and lemon.
These all in the Gothic Cathedral of St. Bravo where the famous Ghent alter piece is . (£12 each to see it)
(The adoration of the Mystic Lamb)
Two brothers , Hubert van Eyck and Jan van Eyck started painting this in 1420 and completed it in 1432.
St. Bravo’s Cathedral Ghent. Here against a pillar are carefully placed, tall, blue delphiniums and just as tall and straight yellow gladioli.
All against a back drop of marble symbolism.

After telling us about the painting we should see our boatman outlined some religious history which I didn’t know was associated with Gwent. He said there were protesters who used the Bible to prove that people didn’t need to pay to be forgiven and that the Catholics were getting rich on them. The fighting he said got so bad that many were killed on both sides at various times and different places. A sad story associated with such a water filled reflective town.

Here are some interesting quotes:

There is no worse screen to block out the Spirit than confidence in our own intelligence.

The torture of a bad conscience is the hell of a living soul.

True wisdom consists of two things : knowledge of God and knowledge of self.

John Calvin.
Our boatman’s back is toward us.
His city, a story shared .
Thank you.

Glad you could be with us in Ghent Belgium. We are just travelling through.

sandyroybessbugsy 🤗❤🥰🙂

4 thoughts on “Ghent.The boat man’s story. This is how it went…”

  2. WOW! Those castles are what dreams are made of. So many beautiful and interesting images and stories here. Looks like quite an adventure you are on.

    Reply

    1. Thank you that you shared the adventure. Please feel free to see as much as my camera can give. We will be travelling for quite a while. Yes, it is amazing how well they built so long ago. Nice that we can enjoy the architecture now and see how they lived!!!

      Reply

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