Ghent City Museum, Ghent, Belgium

The Ghent City Museum (STAM) exposes the city history. With respect to the collection that is shown, the history of this museum goes back to 1833, the year in which the Oudheidkundig Museum van de Bijloke in Ghent was founded. In 1928 the museum was situated in the Bijloke abbey - this led to the name Bijlokemuseum.

With the Bijloke collection as base and the Bijloke abbey and Bijloke monastery as buildings, the STAM functions as a modern-day heritage forum. Parts from other collections were added to the Bijloke collection. In connection to the historical buildings a new entrance building was constructed, designed by Ghent's city architect Koen Van Nieuwenhuyse.

The main circuit of the Ghent City Museum serves as a museal and multimedial introduction to a visit to the city of Ghent. The past of the town is illustrated, but also today's life and the future are discussed. The temporary STAM collections describe the phenomenon of 'urbanity' by means of contemporary issues. STAM refers the visitor to the city itself and to Ghent's cultural heritage.

Eyecatching parts of the museum are the sky picture of Ghent (300 m² large) on which the visitors can walk around, and software with which Ghent can be viewed in detail and over the course of four centuries. In the Bijloke abbey that can be accessed through a passerelle in glass, the history of the city is told by means of three hundred objects. Views on Ghent is another multimedial application: a screen shows a city view from the year 1534, floor-plans from 1614 and 1912 and a sky picture from the present. There is also a room for temporary exhibitions.

References:

Wikipedia

Museums in Belgium

User Reviews

little prince (4 years ago)
Nice museum. It was closed for renovation for a while and now it looks much better than before. Got a nice outside space and a café for people to chill around. The garden on the inside is beautiful. Good collection. Definetly worth a visit.

Valerio Montanari (4 years ago)
A very nice museum. Basically all information was in 4 languages (EN, FR, NL, DE). The museum is informative, interactve, interesting, well-made, modern. It is not very big: you can see the entire museum in around 3 hours. The only downside: it costs 10€, that's maybe a few Euros too many. Still, I fully recommend.

Anna Buevich (4 years ago)
Very nice museum, always enjoying to go there. Perfectly organised, amazing level of client assistance, adorable collection and cool interactive.

Tamu Suttarwala (4 years ago)
I'd suggest a visit at the end of your stay in Ghent, once you've gotten acquainted with the city, to see its past in fascinating detail.

Kristof Riebbels (4 years ago)
Nice, cool museum about Ghent. Corona proof as possible. Multiple languages, ... Also good for children.

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