Vrijdagmarkt Ghent

Once the city’s forum for public meetings and executions, this large square is named for its Friday market (still held). Tempting cafés sit beneath step-gabled facades surveyed by a grand statue of Jacob van Artevelde, Ghent's 14th-century anti-French leader. A block west, you can see the 15th-century Dulle Griet, a red 5m-long super-cannon; its 660mm bore and 250kg cannonballs made it one of the five biggest siege guns of the entire Middle Ages.