STAM turned ten in 2020... time for a make-over for the permanent exhibition. Since then you can mingle with parchment abbots, enterprising women, amorous rebels and self-seeking benefactors from the Middle Ages to the present day as you make your way through the new-look 'Story of Ghent’. You can see and feel the city grow and change shape. You discover some of the city’s secrets and of course there's also a fresh version of our (still gigantic) aerial photograph.
Stroll through the new Story of Ghent ...
Ghent is forging ahead. The Bijloke site looked completely different on our last aerial photograph. Now Ghent also boasts a city pavilion (Stadshal), a Parkbos bridge or two, a Ghelamco stadium, the Krook library and an excavated Reep (or Lower Scheldt). Walk across the photograph and see if you can find the Belfry, the Graslei, your house or school. Explore a part of the city on your knees, from the historic centre through the neighbourhoods to the municipalities. There’s a street finder to help you.
You travel back in history and fast-forward through Ghent’s metamorphosis. The Story of Ghent whisks you from a city in-the-making, through a medieval metropolis to a resilient and now irrepressible city. The museum as a tele-time machine... Press pause whenever you like and prepare to be overawed by handpicked items from the museum’s collection. Linger a while at star attractions like the wire-frame models of St John’s Church and Gravensteen castle. Lose yourself in old, wall-wide maps and in digitally-generated animated images, which also give you a glimpse of the future.
A city is all about building, living and being connected. And you feel that in the new Story of Ghent. See the city grow. Hear Ghent speak. Feel the wood and stone from which Ghent was built. Soak up the atmosphere and sense the energy. And learn how Ghent had and still has a connection with the Low Countries, Europe and the world.
Feel free to touch! We are extending the face-lift to the fun children’s trail that runs through all the galleries in the museum. As merchants, artisans, architects and spatial planners, children help make the city. They sell cloth, clad façades and map out transport routes.
Lining the walls of corridors in Bijloke Abbey is a series of photographs by Michiel Hendryckx entitled ‘Ghent today’.
Grafplaat van Willem Wenemaer (+1325)
Ruiterstatuette
Panoramisch gezicht op Gent in 1534
Gezicht op de heerlijkheid Sint-Baafs en de stad Gent
Laurens vanden Haute
Gewelfschotel met bladmasker van de Dominicanenkerk te Gent
Paxtafel van de St. Sebastiaansgilde
Het kopje thee
Balboekje
Damesmasker
Collectebus
Vouwwaaier
Inhuldiging van het standbeeld van Jacob van Artevelde
Trappaal uit een woning in de Annonciadenstraat te Gent
Schrijfstel van Virginie Loveling
Gezicht op de Sint-Joriskaai en Steendam te Gent
Stoel uit het Ottenstadion Gent
Wedstrijdmaquette van het Emile Braunplein met de Stadshal Gent
Stuk beton afkomstig uit het E17-viaduct te Gentbrugge, het zogenaamde 'Brokkelviaduct'
Wachthuis voor tram of bus
Feel free to touch! A fun children’s trail that leads through every room in the museum. Children become merchants, craftspeople, architects or city trippers and participate in city life. They sell cloth, make coats of arms, face façades and work out routes.
STAMsquare is a separate part of the museum with a changing programme of events and activities. It can be visited separately from the rest of the museum and free of charge.
