RoutesHiking trails & RoutesBelgiumFlandersEast Flanders
Walburg Moated Castle – Town hall with belfry loop from Sint-Niklaas
RoutesHiking trails & RoutesBelgiumFlandersEast Flanders
Walburg Moated Castle – Town hall with belfry loop from Sint-Niklaas
Easy
4.3
(4)
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hikers
Walburg Moated Castle – Town hall with belfry loop from Sint-Niklaas
00:58
3.80km
10m
Hiking
Easy hike. Great for any fitness level. Easily-accessible paths. Suitable for all skill levels. The starting point of the route is right next to a parking lot.
Last updated: June 10, 2026
Waypoints
A
Start point
Parking
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1
115 m
Artwork "The Countesses"
Highlight • Monument
Following the celebration of 800 years of Sint-Niklaas, Art in the City commissioned Frans Heirbaut to immortalize the founding countesses on the Grote Markt of Sint-Niklaas, an idea that was launched years ago by the urban emancipation council.
Joanna of Constantinople, Countess of Flanders and Hainaut, was asked to establish a new parish in 1217. In 1241 she made Sint-Niklaas the administrative center of the Land van Waas. Her sister, Countess Margaretha, donates land including this large market square.
The noble ladies are depicted as skeletons by Frans Heirbaut. It is a conscious choice with which he addresses medieval motifs and moralizing themes such as the mortality of man, death that is always very near (memento mori). With their elegant posture and gestures, the countesses appear to be performing the dance of death (danse macabre).
The motif of vanity (vanitas) is reflected in the central mirror. The countesses take a 'selfie'. This gives the group of sculptures a universal character that connects past and present.
In 2017, the Cultural Prize of the City of Sint-Niklaas was awarded to this special achievement
Source: kunstindestad.be/portfolio-view/johanna-en-margaretha-van-constantinopel-1217-door-frans-heirbaut
Joanna of Constantinople, Countess of Flanders and Hainaut, was asked to establish a new parish in 1217. In 1241 she made Sint-Niklaas the administrative center of the Land van Waas. Her sister, Countess Margaretha, donates land including this large market square.
The noble ladies are depicted as skeletons by Frans Heirbaut. It is a conscious choice with which he addresses medieval motifs and moralizing themes such as the mortality of man, death that is always very near (memento mori). With their elegant posture and gestures, the countesses appear to be performing the dance of death (danse macabre).
The motif of vanity (vanitas) is reflected in the central mirror. The countesses take a 'selfie'. This gives the group of sculptures a universal character that connects past and present.
In 2017, the Cultural Prize of the City of Sint-Niklaas was awarded to this special achievement
Source: kunstindestad.be/portfolio-view/johanna-en-margaretha-van-constantinopel-1217-door-frans-heirbaut
Translated by Google •
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2
279 m
StreetArt by I am Eelco
Highlight • Monument
At a young age, I AM EELCO was gripped by 'the hip-hop virus'. And that brand
you. His psychedelic drawings full of animals breathe graffiti, pop art and street culture.
He is at home in Rotterdam and New York, but can also be seen in Sint-Niklaas.
you. His psychedelic drawings full of animals breathe graffiti, pop art and street culture.
He is at home in Rotterdam and New York, but can also be seen in Sint-Niklaas.
Translated by Google •
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3
1.43 km
Kiosk in Romain De Vidts Park
Highlight • Monument
Remarkable in the park is the kiosk with substructure in bluestone and superstructure in cast iron lacework, in a style that includes Gothic and Moorish elements. The kiosk stood on the Grote Markt until 1966 and was rebuilt in the park in 1984.
(Flanders Heritage)
(Flanders Heritage)
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4
1.65 km
Walburg Moated Castle
Highlight • Castle
The water castle Walburg rises in the middle of this 7-hectare Romain de Vidtspark. Knight Willem Van Waelwyck had the castle built in 1550 in a Flemish Renaissance with a touch of Brabant Gothic here and there. the facade and wing on the side of the park date from the end of the 17th century.
(Flanders Heritage)
(Flanders Heritage)
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5
2.16 km
Grote Markt Sint-Niklaas
Highlight • Settlement
The Grote Markt is a market square in the center of the Belgian city of Sint-Niklaas. With its area of 3.19 hectares, it is known as the largest market square in Belgium. It is dominated by the neo-gothic town hall.
nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grote_Markt_(Sint-Niklaas)
nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grote_Markt_(Sint-Niklaas)
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6
2.83 km
Bust of Doctor Jan-Hubert Van Raemdonck
Highlight • Monument
Van Raemdonck graduated from the University of Ghent in 1845 as a doctor of medicine and the following year as a doctor of midwifery. After working for a while as an intern at the Hôpital de Gand, Van Raemdonck started working as a doctor for the poor ("Médecin des pauvres") for the Charity Office of Sint-Niklaas. He remained in this post for about thirty years. Meanwhile, his personal interest was in the history, prehistory and folklore of his region. In 1861 Van Raemdonck was one of the founding members of the Royal Archaeological Circle of the Land of Waas. He contributed a large number of objects to the collection of the Kring museum in Sint-Niklaas - such as flints, fossils, urns and Roman coins - some of which came from his own archaeological excavations. He also conducted research into the figure of the geographer Gerard Mercator. Typical of the general orientation of his research, Van Raemdonck devoted several articles to the question of Mercator's nationality, whom he regarded as Rupelmond, Flemish and Belgian. This caused Van Raemdonck to enter into a fierce conflict with German historians who regarded the famous cartographer as a German. After Van Raemdonck's recuperation of Mercator as a Belgian, busts of the famous cartographer were erected here and there in Flanders, including in the Académie royale de Belgique. This placed his work in the ideological and politically charged historiography of the end of the nineteenth century, which, among other things, probed for a Flemish cultural identity. Van Raemdonck also collected a large number of objects related to Mercator for the association museum, such as maps and publications.[1] In 1871, Van Raemdonck was appointed honorary member of the Royal Archaeological Circle of the Land of Waas.
Van Raemdonck was also a member of the Académie d'Archéologie de Belgique (1883) of the Société royale belge de Géographie (1877) and a corresponding member of the Cercle archéologique de Mons (1888), the Société royale des beaux-arts et de littérature de Gand (1875) and a number of foreign scientific societies such as the Dutch Geographical Society of Amsterdam (1883) and the Société des anciens textes russes of Saint Petersburg (1880).
Van Raemdonck was also a member of the Académie d'Archéologie de Belgique (1883) of the Société royale belge de Géographie (1877) and a corresponding member of the Cercle archéologique de Mons (1888), the Société royale des beaux-arts et de littérature de Gand (1875) and a number of foreign scientific societies such as the Dutch Geographical Society of Amsterdam (1883) and the Société des anciens textes russes of Saint Petersburg (1880).
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7
2.83 km
Bust of Gerardus Mercator Rupelmundanus
Highlight • Monument
Gerard Mercator (originally Gerard De Kremer or De Cremer; Latin: Gerardus Mercator Rupelmundanus, "Gerard de Kremer of Rupelmonde") (Rupelmonde, March 5, 1512 - Duisburg, December 2, 1594) was a cartographer, instrument maker and engraver, originally from the County Flanders and the Waasland who was already considered the "Ptolemy of his time" during his lifetime.[source?] He was the first to apply a true-to-angle map projection; later named Mercator projection after him.
Mercator saw himself much more as a scientific cosmographer than as someone who had to make a living by making and selling maps. His production remained limited. He is known for a pair of globes, five wall maps and an unfinished cosmography. He also introduced the word atlas. This word at that time included all the maps of the cosmos; so of both the universe and the earth. His products, which Mercator mainly manufactured in the German Rhine city of Duisburg, had a significant influence on later commercial map makers in the Netherlands.
source: Wikipedia
Mercator saw himself much more as a scientific cosmographer than as someone who had to make a living by making and selling maps. His production remained limited. He is known for a pair of globes, five wall maps and an unfinished cosmography. He also introduced the word atlas. This word at that time included all the maps of the cosmos; so of both the universe and the earth. His products, which Mercator mainly manufactured in the German Rhine city of Duisburg, had a significant influence on later commercial map makers in the Netherlands.
source: Wikipedia
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8
3.79 km
Town hall with belfry
Highlight • Monument
The neo-Gothic town hall of Sint-Niklaas was built in the period from 1876-1878 by the Ghent architect Pieter van Kerkhove. The left and right wing were added after WWII. the facade, the belfry tower and the entrance hall are made of white stone from Gobertange in Walloon Brabant. Two broad staircases have been built against the belfry tower. The balustrades end on a lofty pedestal with four sculpted, seated lions on top of which embrace the city coat of arms of Sint-Niklaas.
(Flanders Heritage)
(Flanders Heritage)
Translated by Google •
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B
3.80 km
End point
Parking
Way Types & Surfaces
Way Types
1.92 km
1.26 km
528 m
< 100 m
Surfaces
2.62 km
544 m
352 m
211 m
< 100 m
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Sunday 12 July
29°C
16°C
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