TRACK - Visiting the Sint-Pietersabdij in Ghent

We are back! After having transferred 11.000 pictures, 26 GB of music and dozens of documents, we can start blogging again! The Viking and I have also started a new project in the meantime with another writer. Read all about it on 15 October! Anyway, let’s continue with our travels and excursions after Our Adaptable Adventure.

When our car had finally been fixed, we were back on the road! The Viking and I first went back to Ghent, because we wanted to continue the TRACK project. These are some of the artworks that we had already seen:

• Book Tower Studio
• Spectres
• Loose Leaves
• Museum Graveyard
• We The People

This time we started our exploration in the Sint-Pietersabdij; the Dutch word “abdij” means “abbey’”in English. The original building was constructed in the 7th century, but was plundered by the Vikings about 200 years later. In the 10th century the abbey evolved towards an abbey village and one century later it became the center of an international textile industry.

The abbey became very prosperous in the 14th-15th century. Unfortunately, it underwent the consequences of the so-called Beeldenstorm (Iconoclastic Fury) in the 16th century, during which a lot of religious images and artworks were destroyed. The restoration works of the 17th and 18th century gave the abbey its current look.

At the end of the 18th century the last monks had to leave the abbey and the building was transformed into barracks and in the 19th century into a prison. Nowadays, the abbey has been turned into an exhibition space. You can visit the building and there are often temporary exhibitions, like TRACK.

I took pictures inside and outside the building. Because of the peace and quiet in the abbey, a lot of students come here to study for their (university) exams. The pictures of the artworks of TRACK will be published in the next posts.

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