First published: 06/07/20.

Clyde 2.5

Belfries

Belfries (Inscribed)

Belfries by Clyde

After a recent road trip in June 2020, I have now visited 23 out of the 33 Belgian Belfries and only 2 out of the 23 French ones, something I hope to make up for in the near future.

Without repeating what has already been mentioned before, I would like to underline the very good information, map and pictures on Wikipedia (search Belfries of Belgium and France). This can come in handy to plan the most convenient loop if you're travelling by car, as well as to know what to look for when you're in town.

Most inscribed Belgian Belfries are quite straightforward to spot and lie in the main square. Others aren't, and here I can highlight a number of them such as the one in Namur which seems more like a round tower, the one in Tienen - make sure to look out for the UNESCO information board/sign as you can easily be misled by the Church of Our Lady of the Lake belfry which is not inscribed, in Leuven you can easily be misled by the University Library or City Hall but it's the unfinished tower of St. Peter's Church which is inscribed, in Zouitleeuw there's no belfry proper but St. Leonard's Church with its central tower, in Sint Truiden the city hall tower is inscribed not the Church of Saint Martin or the gothic church of Our Lady, and in Dendermonde the city hall belfry is inscribed not the octagonal tower of the Sheldt gothic church or the Justice Palace's tower.

Moreover, even though we have a connection named Exact locations inscribed twice (or more), it is worth highlighting the locations with inscribed belfries as well as Flemish beguinages (9 out of the 13 locations), namely Leuven, Dendermonde, Lier, Sint Truiden, Tongeren, Mechelen, Ghent, Kortrijk and Bruges.

Most of the Flemish belfries have an white/light yellow information board with the UNESCO symbol, but the ones in Namur and Lier also have a  metal UNESCO inscription plaque.

I really enjoyed most of the belfries (and beguinages, more in a separate review), and I plan to complete the remaining 10 in Belgium and cover more in France. Photo: Aalst (top left), Tongeren (top right), Sint Truiden (bottom left), and Dendermonde (bottom right).

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