Dendermonde, which is found wherever the River Dender enters the Scheldt River, is usually a Medieval town rich in essential 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 famous for, is yet another declare to fame. Ros Beiaard saved its master (4 Sons of Aymon), from being 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 a long time, most lately in 2020.
Ros Beiaard, a real VIP, is without a doubt. It really is even the subject Dendermondes' town anthem.
Grote Markt
It really is amazing to believe that Dendermonde's most important square continues to be a gathering place for hundreds of yrs.
This Area was at first the outer bailey for the castle. Excavations have exposed an eleventh-century cemetery.
The Vleeshuis (meathall) and the city corridor, with its Gothic belfry are now at your detect.
In 2004, the sq. was paved having a style and design by Harold Van de Perre.
Sit back again and luxuriate in a local tripel, dubbel or beer over the terraces. If you are feeling courageous, You can even pair it with a piece of local specialty, headcheese, by using a sprint mustard.
Each and every Monday, there are marketplaces. 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 town hall has become selected a UNESCO Globe Heritage Web-site.
Dendermonde's Belfry was at first developed as a corner tower to assist town's cloth Hall.
The constructing showcased stepped gables and rows of niches with finely carved particulars. It had been included into the city hall in 15th century.
For the reason that sixteenth century, the belfry has had a carillon. It was reinstalled in 1970 following the finish of WWI. On Sundays and Mondays amongst eleven:00 and twelve:00, you can take pleasure in a live performance by town’s carilloneur.
You can accessibility the town hall, belfry, and fabric corridor with a self-guided audioguide tour.
This is a distinctive knowledge that you will not wish to overlook, Specially While using the fine art collection on the very first flooring. It is usually through the nineteenth-century Dendermondse University and also features works by Piet Van de Ouderaa and Henry De Noble.
Vleeshuismuseum
Grote Markt's magnificent Late Gothic meat trading corridor was built-in 1462 to exchange an older structure dating back towards the 13th century.
The bottom ground was where by area butchers could trade, and it absolutely was the only real place in Dendermonde which they ended up permitted to market to the public.
Inside the 1860s, the outdated meat counters ended up dismantled along with the hall became a covered vegetable market.
The museum was established in 1899 and survived the very first World War unharmed.
Inside of, you will discover a mammoth skeleton that is definitely authentic and 30,000 a long time old, generations-outdated blades and firearms, plus a picket Merovingian and Saxon figurehead.
You can even find out about Dendermonde's culture and understand the town's processional giants along with Ros Beiaard, the hero horse.
Begijnhof
Lay religious Women of all ages who failed to get poverty vows lived Within this Group considering the fact that 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 conclusion of the 16th century after an iconoclastic riot.
In 1998, the beguinage was selected a UNESCO Planet Heritage 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 buildings are stuffed with antique furnishings and appliances that deliver insight into your everyday life of a beguine in the 19th and twentieth centuries.
Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk
The attractive Sheldt Gothic Church with its octagonal tower has lots of treasures.
Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk attained its existing structure once the former 11th-century Romanesque setting up was reworked among the thirteenth and 15th hundreds of years.
The composition you see connected to church's east facet is part of the chapterhouse, which has existed in certain type or A different since the twelfth Century.
First, you can find paintings inside of by Anthony van Dyck and Gaspar de Crayer.
You should also just take the perfect time to see the 12th century Romanesque baptismal font constructed from Tournai's blue-black limestone. Also, you should consider the seventeenth-century Baroque Choir Monitor, the pulpit as well as other finely carved items of church home furnishings that were developed round the same time.
The church treasury shimmers with valuable silver and gold liturgical objects like monstrances, reliquaries, plus more.
Abdij van Dendermonde
In the heart of Dendermonde, you will discover One more extraordinary monument: the Benedictine abbey at Vlasmarkt.
This church is devoted to St Peter and St Paul. It was founded in 1837 by a single the last monks of Affligem Abbey. The monastery was wrecked from the French Revolution of 1797. Dendermonde's abbey was crafted on the site of an old Capuchin monastery from 16th century. It was reconstructed while in the neoGothic model at the conclusion of nineteenth century.
A percentage of the Prinsenhof palace was also acquired via the monks.
Regretably, the complicated was severely broken by fires throughout Planet War I and was rebuilt inside the nineteen twenties.
Dendermonde Tripel is actually a hugely prized abbey beer the monks in the abbey make their living from. It really is dark blond, leading-fermented and has a refined sweet taste.
Smaragdus is a fine herbal liqueur that can be made use of to be a digestif As well as in desserts.
Apart from the eye-catching, minimal-crucial basilica and monastic shop, the abbey continues to be shut to website visitors besides on Whit Monday afternoon, when visitors will have scarce 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 Modern society normally takes care of the railway's 9 steam and diesel locomotives, in numerous states of restoration.
The ride usually takes you from the Antwerp and East Flanders countrysides in the 1930s-era carriage. It's going to take about 70 minutes to have from Baasrode-Noord, Dendermonde to Sint-Amands.
To determine rolling inventory, the railway's ongoing operate and to perspective the depot and lawn in Dendermonde, you can also stop by the workshop and garden.
Gerechtsgebouw van Dendermonde (Justititiepaleis)
In Medieval times, the Lords of Dendermonde lived for the present Court docket of Very first Occasion Situated within the remaining financial institution of Oude Dender.
The castle was given into a Carmelite monastery in 1664. It was later on destroyed in the course of the French Revolution.
After the destruction on the Neoclassical building, the grand neogothic courthouse you see these days is the 2nd.
The decoration from the facade was performed by Oscar Sinia and Geo Verbanck, two notable sculptors.
Dendermonde's folkloristic horse Ros Beiaard (mounted because of the Four Sons of Aymon) might be identified.
The facade also functions the coats of arms of Belgium's many judicial regions. Also, the tower of the palace is decorated with gilded Owls being a image for wisdom.
Bastion VIII
Dendermonde was enclosed by walls as many as a metre large in addition to a network of canals right up until the twentieth century. This is a remnant of its historical past for a barrier fortress that guarded the Kingdom of France through the Dutch Republic.
You could see evidence of defensive constructions all over the town. When you have a map, it is not difficult to establish the route of the moat.
The former bastion was demolished and changed 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 towards faculties.
It truly is an incredible place to take a stroll together 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 inside a mosaic habitat of freshwater, scrub, and moist woodland.
Wandelroute: Dendermonde Vestingstad
The tourist Workplace has produced a walking trail of three kilometres through Dendermonde's military history.
The route is not signposted but you can get a map and leaflet for free.
Bastions, ravelins get more info 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 built Dendermonde liable to invasion.