Belgium · Flanders · Gent
New Ghent, Gent — Area Guide & Where to Stay
New Ghent, or Nieuw Gent, is a social housing district of Gent, laid out between the Ringvaart and De Pintelaan south of the centre.
About New Ghent
Where to stay in New Ghent
Not every neighbourhood fits every trip — here's what each one is good for.
Rerum Novarumplein carries a church, a service house and a Wednesday food market, and no hotel at all, because Nieuw Gent was built as rented social housing rather than as a district that sells rooms. The Kikvorsstraat blocks house tenants, not guests. An appointment at UZ Gent, a family address off the Edelsteenstraat, or work on the replacement sites are what put a traveller this far south, and the tram at De Pintelaan runs through Gent-Sint-Pieters to the Kouter.
About New Ghent
What are the main landmarks in New Ghent?
The Christus Koningkerk stands at the middle of the Rerum Novarumplein, a modernist church designed in 1963 by Adrien Bressers and Jean Gilson, its first stone laid in 1968 and the finished building consecrated in April 1969. A service house of 2008 faces it, holding the police station, the civil desk and a branch library. Basisschool De Panda serves the district.
The Patrice Lumumbapark, five hectares of playing fields, kitchen gardens and walking paths at the middle of the district, honours Patrice Lumumba, the first elected prime minister of Congo.
What is the history of New Ghent?
Meadows ran south from the Gent-Sint-Pieters station quarter well into the twentieth century, and a social garden district had gone up around the Steenakker east of the Zwijnaardsesteenweg before anything stood here. Digging for the Ringvaart began in 1950, and its spoil filled these low fields. Expropriation was approved in 1952.
Land passed to the Nationale Maatschappij voor Huisvesting in 1964, a layout plan followed in 1972, and the blocks Milenka, Orion, Aurora, Mercurius, Jupiter and Saturnus rose around the Kikvorsstraat in 1976 and 1982. Saturnus came down at the end of 2021.
Where is New Ghent?
Four edges hold Nieuw Gent: the Oudenaardsesteenweg west, the Zwijnaardsesteenweg east, De Pintelaan north, and the Ringvaart cutting it off from Zwijnaarde.
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Updated September 2026