St Bavo's Cathedral and the Ghent Altarpiece

St Bavo's Cathedral is a soaring Gothic church in the heart of Ghent, and it is home to the Ghent Altarpiece, or the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb, painted by the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck and finished in 1432. It is one of the most studied and most stolen paintings in history, and a visit to see it is the main reason many people come to Ghent. The altarpiece is shown in a paid visitor centre beside the cathedral, with an augmented reality tour available that brings the panels and their hidden details to life. The cathedral itself also holds Rubens, a crypt and a pulpit worth a look. The important thing for a November visit is that the altarpiece is in the final phase of a long restoration, so the arrangement is unusual: the restored exterior panels and five lower panels are in the visitor centre, while the upper panels of the open altarpiece are being treated at the Museum of Fine Arts.

The painting is a polyptych of twelve panels that opens and closes, with a closed everyday view and a blazing open view of heaven and earth gathered around the sacrificial Lamb. It has survived fire, iconoclasts, a Napoleonic seizure, wartime looting and the theft of the Just Judges panel in 1934, which has never been recovered and is replaced by a copy. A major conservation programme run by the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage has worked on it in three phases since 2012, and the third and final phase, on the upper register of the open panels, is the one under way now.

Here is how to plan around it. The cathedral's visitor centre shows the restored exterior panels and five lower panels from the earlier phases, with the augmented reality tour and a family audio tour for children aged six and up. At the Museum of Fine Arts, the upper panels are being restored in a glass-fronted studio, where you can watch the restorers at work from Tuesday to Friday.

On weekends and holidays the restorers are away and the panels are placed on view. The museum's presentation runs to the end of 2026, and the conservation body expects the work to finish in spring 2027, after which the altarpiece returns to its chapel. Check the cathedral and museum sites before you travel, because arrangements may change.

The visitor centre charges a modest admission, with a higher price for the augmented reality tour, and a CityCard Gent gives a discount if you book online. The whole building is wheelchair accessible. The booking page linked here is a self-guided walking tour themed on the 1934 theft of the Just Judges panel, a lively way to learn the story as you walk between the cathedral, the quays and the old centre. Entry to the altarpiece itself is bought from the visitor centre.