Dendermonde, which is found where by the River Dender enters the Scheldt River, is a Medieval city full of critical heritage.
Two UNESCO Environment Heritage Web pages make headlines: just one a Gothic Belfry, the opposite a beguinage that dates back again for the 13th Century.
Ros Beiaard, a folkloristic horse that Dendermonde claimed to generally be well known for, is an additional claim to fame. Ros Beiaard saved its master (4 Sons of Aymon), from currently being captured by Charlemagne.
This 800kg wooden beast, which is ridden by 4 brothers who're Medieval riders, is paraded about Dendermonde each 10 several years, most not too long ago in 2020.
Ros Beiaard, a true VIP, is little question. It truly is even the subject Dendermondes' town anthem.
Grote Markt
It truly is remarkable to think that Dendermonde's key square is a gathering spot for a huge selection of decades.
This Room was originally the outer bailey for your castle. Excavations have uncovered an eleventh-century cemetery.
The Vleeshuis (meathall) and the town corridor, with its Gothic belfry are actually at your notice.
In 2004, the sq. was paved with a style and design by Harold Van de Perre.
Sit back again and luxuriate in a neighborhood 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 markets. In early December, a big Christmas 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 originally developed for a corner tower to assistance town's cloth Corridor.
The building highlighted stepped gables and rows of niches with finely carved facts. It absolutely was incorporated into the town corridor in fifteenth century.
Since the 16th century, the belfry has had a carillon. It had been reinstalled in 1970 once the end of WWI. On Sundays and Mondays among eleven:00 and twelve: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 fabric corridor on a self-guided audioguide tour.
This can be a exclusive practical experience that you will not want to skip, Primarily Together with the high-quality artwork collection on the very first floor. It is mostly from your 19th-century Dendermondse College but in addition involves will work by Piet Van de Ouderaa and Henry De Noble.
Vleeshuismuseum
Grote Markt's magnificent Late Gothic meat investing corridor was in-built 1462 to interchange an more mature framework courting again into 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 have been dismantled as well as the hall grew to become a lined vegetable industry.
The museum was set up in 1899 and survived the very first Globe War unharmed.
Inside of, you will discover a mammoth skeleton that is definitely true and 30,000 many years old, generations-outdated blades and firearms, as well as a wooden Merovingian and Saxon figurehead.
You can also understand Dendermonde's lifestyle and study the town's processional giants in addition to Ros Beiaard, the hero horse.
Begijnhof
Lay spiritual Gals who did not take poverty vows lived During this Local community considering that its founding in 1288 and till the Dying of the final beguine in 1975. The Sint-Alexiusbegijnhof has 61 residences on the grassy trapezoidal sq., reconstructed at the conclusion of the 16th century following an iconoclastic riot.
In 1998, the beguinage was selected a UNESCO Environment Heritage Internet site. A museum was also set up to maintain homes No. eleven,24, twenty five, and also the Infirmary, which dates again to 1709, all contributed to the maintenance of the internet site.
These structures are crammed with antique home furniture and appliances that offer Perception in to the way of life of a beguine in the 19th and twentieth hundreds of years.
Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk
The beautiful Sheldt Gothic Church with its octagonal tower has a great deal of treasures.
Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk gained its latest style if the prior eleventh-century Romanesque building was reworked amongst the thirteenth and 15th hundreds of years.
The structure you see hooked up to church's east side is a component of a chapterhouse, which has existed in some sort 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 for you to begin to see the twelfth century Romanesque baptismal font produced 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 around the identical time.
The church treasury shimmers with important silver and gold liturgical products like monstrances, reliquaries, and a lot more.
Abdij van Dendermonde
In the guts of Dendermonde, you will find An additional impressive monument: the Benedictine abbey at Vlasmarkt.
This church is devoted to St Peter and St Paul. It absolutely was Established in 1837 by one the last monks of Affligem Abbey. The monastery was destroyed while in the French Revolution of 1797. Dendermonde's abbey was designed on the internet site of the old 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 bought from the monks.
Regrettably, the intricate was severely destroyed by fires for the duration of Earth War I and was rebuilt from the twenties.
Dendermonde Tripel is often a really prized abbey beer which the monks with the abbey make their dwelling from. It can be darkish blond, prime-fermented and has a delicate sweet flavor.
Smaragdus is really a good herbal liqueur that can be used as a digestif and in desserts.
Except for the attractive, small-vital basilica and monastic store, the abbey stays closed to guests except on Whit Monday afternoon, when company will likely 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-financial gain Culture requires treatment with the railway's nine steam and diesel locomotives, in numerous states of restoration.
The ride usually takes you from the Antwerp and East Flanders countrysides within a 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 may also stop by the workshop and lawn.
Gerechtsgebouw van Dendermonde (Justititiepaleis)
In Medieval occasions, the Lords of Dendermonde lived within the current Court docket of 1st Instance Positioned around the remaining bank of Oude Dender.
The castle was specified into a Carmelite monastery in 1664. It was afterwards destroyed in the French Revolution.
After the destruction of your Neoclassical creating, the grand neogothic courthouse that you see nowadays is the second.
The decoration on the facade was done by Oscar Sinia and Geo Verbanck, two distinguished sculptors.
Dendermonde's folkloristic horse Ros Beiaard (mounted by the Four Sons of Aymon) is usually recognized.
The facade also options the coats of arms of Belgium's different judicial locations. Additionally, the tower on the palace is decorated with gilded Owls to be a image for knowledge.
Bastion VIII
Dendermonde was enclosed by walls approximately a metre superior as well here as a community of canals until the 20th century. This is the remnant of its background for a barrier fortress that protected the Kingdom of France from your Dutch Republic.
You may see evidence of defensive structures all through the town. If you have a map, it is straightforward to establish the route of the moat.
The former bastion was demolished and become a landfill from the west of Dendermonde.
The internet site was saved a few decades in the past which is now a mother nature instruction center, mainly geared in the direction of educational institutions.
It can be an awesome place to take a stroll together with your grown-ups, as it is so close to the town Heart.
Some boards with interpretive signals detect the previous defenses. They can be found inside of a mosaic habitat of freshwater, scrub, and soaked woodland.
Wandelroute: Dendermonde Vestingstad
The vacationer Business has established a going for walks path of a few kilometres by Dendermonde's armed service record.
The route is not really signposted but you can find a map and leaflet without spending a dime.
Bastions, ravelins and restored town gates are only some of the sights you'll see.
This leaflet consists of comprehensive descriptions of each sight and also explanations from the sophisticated geopolitics that created Dendermonde prone to invasion.