Hotels near St Bavo's Cathedral and the Ghent Altarpiece

The main reason to travel to Ghent is inside St Bavo's Cathedral: The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, painted by the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck and completed in 1432. Widely considered the most influential painting in Western art history and the first major oil painting, the 12-panel polyptych was the target of 13 crimes over 6 centuries - stolen by Napoleon, split up by Prussians, hidden from the Nazis by Ghent citizens in a mine in Austria, and had one panel stolen in 1934 that has never been found. The 25-year restoration finished in 2024 revealed the painted figures' original faces after 500 years of overpainting.

The Altarpiece has been housed since 2020 in a purpose-built climate-controlled visitor centre inside the cathedral's Sacrament chapel. Entry now uses a timed AR-guided experience (EUR 16 including headset), launched in 2025, that puts you inside the missing lower-left panel via augmented reality. Book online 3 to 5 days ahead in peak summer. The cathedral itself, a 14th to 16th-century Gothic pile with a Romanesque crypt, is free to enter. Rubens's Conversion of St Bavo (1624) hangs in the north chapel.

Pro Tip: Book the first 09:30 AR slot on a weekday. The visitor centre holds only 8 people at a time and by 11:00 the noise from later groups outside starts to leak in. Photography without flash is now allowed in the Altarpiece chapel, but the AR experience is why you came.