Belgium · Flanders · Gent
Mendonk, Gent — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Mendonk is a ribbon village on the Moervaart in Gent, its Sint-Baafskerk holding the penitentiesteen that legend calls Saint Bavo's pillow.
About Mendonk
Where to stay in Mendonk
Where you base yourself shapes the visit — here's the character of each area.
Mendonk sends its visitors to Gent for a bed, some 13 km south-west, and keeps Mendonkdorp for the walking. One street holds the village. Inside three hundred metres of the Sint-Baafskerk stand the schandpaal facing number 42, the village school of 1864, and the pastorie of 1863.
You would sleep out here only for the Gent port, since the Kanaal Gent-Terneuzen and its works close the western side. Spanjeveerstraat runs south-west toward the Sint-Bavokapel.
About Mendonk
What are the main landmarks in Mendonk?
Mendonk's Sint-Baafskerk stands at Mendonkdorp 40A inside its own kerkhof. Edmond de Perre-Montigny rebuilt the single-nave brick church around 1870, fire took it in 1944, and Adrien Bressers raised it again in neo-Romanesque form, its square south tower carrying round-arched louvres and a slate needle spire. Inside lies the penitentiesteen.
Facing number 42 rises the granite schandpaal, protected since 1946, its ball finial bearing the arms of Govaart Geeraard van Eersel. On Spanjeveerstraat the Sint-Bavokapel of 1868 marks the ground where Saint Bavo is said to have lived as a hermit.
What is the history of Mendonk?
Mendonk is recorded in 694 as Medmedung, a name built from Germanic miduma for middle and dunga for a sandy rise standing above marsh. A nun called Childela is said to have dedicated its church to Saint Bavo that same year. The Sint-Baafsabdij held the parish into the sixteenth century, and when the diocese of Gent was founded its bishop took the lordship of Mendonk with it.
Gent's port took ground in 1927. On 1 January 1965 the commune was divided between Gent and Wachtebeke. A ferry worked the Moervaart until 1977, and the inn at Mendonkdorp 26 took its name In 't Veer from the crossing.
Where is Mendonk?
Mendonk lies on both banks of the Moervaart, the Zuidlede running in from the east, north of Zaffelare, east of Desteldonk, and south of Sint-Kruis-Winkel.
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More areas in Gent
Updated September 2026