Belgium · Flanders · Gent
Portus Ganda, Gent — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Masts crowd the basin off the Veermanplein at Portus Ganda, a marina quarter of Gent built in 2005 at the historic junction of the Leie and the Scheldt.
About Portus Ganda
Where to stay in Portus Ganda
Where you base yourself shapes the visit — here's the character of each area.
Portus Ganda is a mooring before it is a lodging quarter. Visiting boats tie up along the Veermanplein and the Nieuwbrugkaai, and the ground behind those quays carries the Sint-Lievenscollege and an office block rather than reception desks. The harbour office sits in the bathhouse.
Hotels stand under a kilometre west in the old core of Gent, and Gent-Dampoort is a few hundred metres east for the trains. You will want this corner of Gent if you arrive by water, or if a swimming hall of 1886 at the end of the quay beats a lobby.
About Portus Ganda
What are the main landmarks in Portus Ganda?
Portus Ganda holds a listed bathhouse, a steel cable-stayed footbridge and a red statue in the water. The Van Eyck pool stands at Julius de Vigneplein 5, a three-bay bathhouse of 1886 by Edmond De Vigne under a mansard roof, listed as a monument on 5 April 1995 and rebuilt inside in concrete in 1932. The gable still reads Badhuis.
Out in the basin a red girl in headphones sits on a wooden stage, a 2014 figure by Johan Meirlaen that Gent calls the Lorelei. The Bavobrug carries walkers and cyclists across to the Nieuwbrugkaai. St Bavo's Cathedral and the Belfry of Ghent stand over half a kilometre west, not on these quays.
What is the history of Portus Ganda?
Portus Ganda carries a Latin name the place never had. Portus is harbour and Ganda is Gent, but the medieval portus lay about 500 metres upstream on the Scheldt, and the Sint-Baafsabdij that first carried the name Ganda is a ruin east of the basin, in the Machariuswijk. Gent filled in the Nederschelde around 1960 and paved it for parking, which cut the Leie off from the Scheldt.
Dredgers gave the basin its depth in 2002, and the harbour opened on 29 and 30 April 2005. The Scaldissluis drops boats 1.16 metres. The Reep was dug open again on 24 September 2018, and the two rivers ran together at this bend once more.
Where is Portus Ganda?
Portus Ganda fills the water between the Sint-Jorisbrug and the Van Eyckbrug in Gent, quayed by the Nieuwbrugkaai to the west and the Voorhoutkaai to the east.
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Updated September 2026