Hotels near Vrijdagmarkt and Ghent's Beer Culture

Vrijdagmarkt (Friday Market) has been Ghent's main civic square for 800 years - the place where guilds held meetings, where every count of Flanders swore his oath to the citizens, and where public executions once took place under the plane trees. The bronze statue of Jacob van Artevelde (1863), the medieval brewer-turned-mayor who allied Ghent with England during the Hundred Years War, dominates the centre. The Friday market for which the square is named still runs every Friday morning from 07:30 to 13:00 with 100-plus stalls of Flemish produce and antiques.

Around the square is Ghent's best beer circuit. Dulle Griet on Vrijdagmarkt 50 famously requires you to leave a shoe as deposit for the giant 1.2-litre Kwak glass. 't Galgenhuisje just off the square is the smallest pub in Ghent (12 seats). The Trappistenhuis on Brabantdam 164 stocks all 12 authorised Trappist beers on tap, a rarity even in Belgium. For a proper geuze or kriek, walk five minutes to Waterhuis aan de Bierkant on Groentenmarkt with its 150-plus Belgian beer menu.

Pro Tip: Friday morning is the only time to catch the actual weekly market that gives the square its name. Order a proper Flemish lambic or geuze rather than a standard blonde - it's the local sour beer style you cannot get outside Belgium at anywhere near this quality.