Boekentoren, University library tower in Ghent, Belgium
The Boekentoren is a 64-metre concrete tower with a Greek-cross plan, twenty storeys above ground and four below, its base clad in bluestone. Narrow vertical window strips run up the shaft to a recessed glass section under a projecting rim. Inside, a long aisle is lined with dark wooden cabinets of small square drawers fitted with metal label holders and round knobs.
Belgian architect Henry van de Velde designed this concrete structure in 1933 as a symbol of modern university architecture. During World War II, the German Army occupied the building, recognizing its strategic position overlooking the city.
The tower's name, Boekentoren, simply means Book Tower, marking it as a book store rather than a bell tower like Ghent's three medieval towers. Its belvedere once served as a staff recreation room and still holds a worn billiard table; only tower residents know how it got there. In 2006 the belvedere was selected for the VRT programme Monumentenstrijd.
The library services, study landscape and reading room reopened in summer 2021 after restoration began in 2012; the east wing followed in early 2024, while work on the west wing started that same year. The belvedere viewing platform and the tower interiors were restored and the building was made more accessible to the general public. Parts of the tower remain in use by the university, so check opening arrangements before travelling.
Since 2018, a bronze statue of a fox terrier has crowned the top of the tower, marking this modernist structure against the Ghent skyline. This unexpected artwork gives the otherwise serious academic building a playful and quirky personality.
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