In Celtic times, Ghent was known as “Ganda” meaning confluence or river mouth. The name makes sense as Ghent was located at the confluence of the rivers Lys (Leie) and Scheldt with the River Kale or Dune to the North; right in the corner between the loamy and silty fertile farmland to the west, and the sandy moors and dense forests to the north and east. While in the south-west, a marshy riverine landscape crisscrossed by rivers, ditches, canals, and other waterways was suited to the cultivation of grain, the sandy moors came to offer a favourable pastoral landscape after the reclamation 1000 – 1300. Ghent was powerful, well-organized in its wealthy trade guilds, and virtually independent until 1584. Within its walls was signed the Pacification of Ghent (1576), an attempt to unite the Lowlands provinces
... read more
