Belgium · Flanders · Gent
Patershol, Gent — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Brick and sandstone fronts crowd Patershol, a medieval quarter of Gent between the Geldmunt and the Leie, known for the Caermersklooster.
About Patershol
Where to stay in Patershol
Not every neighbourhood fits every trip — here's what each one is good for.
Patershol is the eating quarter of the old core of Gent, 4.5 hectares of lanes where cafes and small restaurants hold the ground floors. That trade revived the quarter from the 1970s, when private owners moved in ahead of the city. Cobbles survived the renovation.
The city then bought and restored the derelict houses and wrote the housing function back into the quarter, so a room here stands in a lived-in stadsgezicht rather than on a museum street. Choose Patershol if you want dinner downstairs, the Leie two streets away and the Gravensteen across the Geldmunt.
About Patershol
What are the main landmarks in Patershol?
Patershol carries three large ensembles, the oldest of them the Caermersklooster. That house runs back from the Vrouwebroersstraat in two wings around two courtyard gardens, on a 13th-century refuge of the abbey of Cambron. The Drongenhof chapel adjoins it, all that survives of a Norbertine house, and the Huis van Alijn holds the third ensemble, the Kinderen Alijnshospitaal at Kraanlei 65.
Around them the Corduwaniersstraat, the Trommelstraat and the Plotersgracht carry the names of the leather trades. The Kaatsspelplein is the quarter's square. The Gravensteen is not in Patershol; it stands across the Geldmunt on Sint-Veerleplein.
What is the history of Patershol?
Patershol began as comital ground on the Leie, a 10th-century castrum whose name lives on in the Oudburg. The oldest habitation traces are 12th-century, and leather work held it until the 18th. Carmelite friars reached Gent in 1272, and the Kinderen Alijnshospitaal opened on the Kraanlei in 1363.
Magistrates raised the herenhuizen while the courts sat in the Gravensteen. Industry split those houses into beluiken. The Plotersgracht was filled in 1872.
After the First World War the quarter filled with lodging houses and bars, and it stayed run down into the 1970s. Patershol was listed as a protected stadsgezicht on 3 September 1981.
Where is Patershol?
Patershol covers about 4.5 hectares of central Gent between the Lange Steenstraat, the Sluizeken, the Leie and the Geldmunt.
Good for
More areas in Gent
Updated September 2026