Pre-conference cocktail party
Monday 24 NOV 2008 - 6 pm
The pre-conference cocktail reception is preceded by an optional visit by boat to the Port of Ghent. The boat trip leaves at 2 pm.
Registration for both events is mandatory. You can register by ticking the appropriate box when registering online as conference delegate. Click here!
Exhibitors can register for these events by ticking the appropriate box when filling out the reply forms in the exhibitor manual.
There is restricted capacity for the Port Visit, so don't postpone your registration if you want to make sure of your participation.
The pre-conference cocktail reception will be held in the Reception Room of the Town Hall.
Town Hall
Of the numerous medieval buildings of Ghent, the Town Hall is the one that shows most clearly the history and the fate of the city from the end of the 15th century until now.
The town hall is situated on the site where until 1482 the town representatives and guild's men met in separate houses. Because these houses were judged too small and too unrepresentative for such important people, it was decided that a new and bigger town hall had to be built. The first stone of this new hall was laid in 1482. The building was finished in 1484. Very soon, however, also this new hall was considered too small and from 1518 until 1535 a new and much bigger town hall was constructed in late-gothic style.
In 1540 Ghent suffered reprisals from emperor Charles V because the citizens had dared to refuse to pay more taxes to the emperor. By then, only one third of the planned town hall had been constructed. It was only as from 1572 that Ghent could continue to build its town hall. However, the architectural style had changed and several renaissance-style parts were added to the building until the beginning of the 18th century. In 1750 a construction in Louis XV-style was added as the seat of the 'chamber of the poor'. In the beginning of the 19th century the staircases in front of the hall were changed for a visit of Napoleon. All through the 19th century several renovations were undertaken. The original furniture of the different rooms is either still present or has been transferred to the Bijloke museum of Ghent.
Reception Room
The Reception Room, formerly used as dining room, was later converted into the members’ room of the States of Flanders. The monumental baroque chimney-piece contains an allegoric representation by Jan van Cleef of the ‘Reception of Philip IV, King of Spain, by the Province and the States of Flanders’. It shows the Maid of Ghent with the lion at her feet. She is surrounded by Philip IV of Spain and Minerva, goddess of war, art and science.
This political allegory should be interpreted as follows: Ghent and Flanders are protected by and live in prosperity thanks to the global power and wealth of the Spanish crown. Dedication to the royal house is therefore a safeguard for the welfare of our regions.
In the lower section is a small eighteenth-century hearth with rocaille motif, made out of white marble, in which stands an early twentieth-century stove.
In 1728-29 the members’ room was thoroughly renovated and redecorated under the direction of the architect Bernard De Wilde (1691-1740). The splendid stucco ceilings have different patterns such as shells, cornucopias, baskets of fruit, grapes and flowers.
Later on the room was embellished with portraits of the Kings of Habsburg and Austrian governors of the 18th century.
Left of the chimney-piece there is a state portrait of Empress Maria Theresa, painted by her court painter Martin von Meytens. She is wearing a dress of Flemish lace made by the children of the Ghent orphanage. The garment, for which the States of Flanders paid 25,000 florins, was sent to Vienna in 1742. To express her gratitude Maria Theresa sat for a portrait in the dress and offered the painting to the City of Ghent.
At the other side of the chimney-piece hangs a portrait of her son Emperor Joseph II.