Gent

Gent (also called Ghent in English, Gand in French) originated at the confluence of the rivers Leie and Schelde. It is said that Gent is the child of Leie (personified as Lise) and Schelde (personified as Scaldus). These two figures have become symbols of the city and often appear on civic buildings, such as the old fish market, the Vismijn. The city's early anchors were two 7th-century abbeys, Sint-Pieter (St. Peter) and Sint-Baafs (St. Bavo), and the 9th-century castle of Gravensteen.

Although set far from the coast, the settlement was still open to foreign marauders, such as Viking raiders who maneuvered canoes along the shallow inland rivers to raid the town's treasures. Baldwin of the Iron Arm, the region's first ruler, built a castle to protect his burgeoning kingdom; thus, Gent became the seat of the counts of Flanders. In the 13th century, Gent and Brugge were joined by canal, and 100 years later Gent had attracted more than 5,000 textile workers.

Wealthy burghers were loyal to the counts of Flanders in the early Middle Ages and owed allegiance to the kings of France. However, the weavers were dependent on wool shipments from England, France's enemy in the Hundred Years' War. In 1302, at the crux of the conflict between nations, the weavers took up arms against the French and defeated them in a battle that, to this day, is vividly recalled by Flemish patriots.

In 1448 the people of Gent refused to pay a salt tax imposed by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. For five years their militia stood firm against Philip's troops, and when they were finally overwhelmed, 16,000 townspeople perished. Gent continued to rebel, again and again, against perceived injustices. The emperor himself, Charles V, who was born in Gent, was not immune to their wrath. He responded by razing the St. Bavo Abbey, tearing down the ancient city gates and walls, and suppressing the rights of Gent's citizens. Religious fervor was added to this volatile mixture when the Calvinist iconoclasts proclaimed the city a republic in 1577, only to be overthrown by Spanish forces seven years later. In the 18th century, French armies marched on Gent on four different occasions. This did little to dampen the conflict between French and Flemish speakers in the city.

Gent was rescued from economic oblivion by a daring young merchant named Lieven Bauwens, who, at the end of the 18th century, smuggled a spinning mule out of Britain in a reversal of what had happened hundreds of years earlier, when Flemish weavers emigrated to England. Bauwens's risky exploit, at a time when industrial spying was punishable by death, provided the foundation for a cotton textile industry that employed 160,000 workers a century later.

To facilitate textile exports, in 1822 a new canal was built to link Gent's inland port with the North Sea at Terneuzen, and Gent again became a major trade center. Today the canal is still vital to modern industrial development, including the automobile assembly plant that uses the canal to transport huge car carriers. Thus, while the city of Brugge emerged as a tourist center renowned for its cultural sights, Gent transformed its historic center into a commercial area of almost 400,000 residents. The Leie's nickname, the Golden River, took on an unfortunate tinge as it came to reflect the color of the river's chemical pollutants. Things have much improved in the last 10 years; the Leie has been cleaned up, tourism is booming, and the city's prestigious university attracts students from all over the world. This influx of international young people gives Gent an especially vibrant, energetic feel—the city may be historic, but it isn't locked into the past.

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