Belgium · Flanders · Gent
Afsnee, Gent — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Afsnee is a village district of Gent on the Leie, where a hand-worked ferry crosses below a Romanesque church of Tournai limestone.
About Afsnee
Where to stay in Afsnee
The right area depends on your trip — here's what each neighbourhood is best for.
Afsnee keeps few beds of its own. The village stayed residential rather than commercial, so most beds sit toward Sint-Martens-Latem or in Gent itself, within a short ride of Gent-Sint-Pieters station. Cyclists ride into the city along the Leie towpath.
The Assels on the left bank is reached by the hand-worked ferry, or by car only from Drongen over the Pontbrug, never directly from the village. Pick Afsnee if you want the towpath and the ferry rather than a wide choice of address.
About Afsnee
What are the main landmarks in Afsnee?
The village core carries protected status. Sint-Jan Baptistkerk, Romanesque at heart and built of Tournai limestone in irregular courses, rises on the right bank of the Leie with a partly walled churchyard and a protected rectory at Afsneedorp 9. Cyriel Buysse spent his summers at Landhuis Daerupt, Afsneedorp 16, and died there. Kasteel Beelaert went up in 1812 on Goedingenstraat, while Hof ten Broecke keeps an older farm plan on Broekkantstraat.
Gustave De Smet is said to have paid for his wedding feast at the Nenuphar in paintings.
What is the history of Afsnee?
Afsnis appears in 697. The name marked a holding of the Sint-Pietersabdij in Gent, and it may record an afsnede, the cutting-off of the old Leie bend that villagers called the Veure. The medieval Heirweg between Gent and Kortrijk ran past on the line of Beukenlaan.
Writers and painters fought the canalisation of the Leie in 1911, and their campaign kept the water meadows and unstraightened bends of the Afsnee reach. Gent took the village in 1977.
Where is Afsnee?
Afsnee sits southwest of Gent. The Leie bends past the village, with Drongen across the water and Sint-Denijs-Westrem and Sint-Martens-Latem along the landward edge.
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Updated September 2026