New Master’s Tours explore Flemish art heritage

Nine new tours will guide art and heritage lovers through key works of the Flemish Masters. Launched on Wednesday at the Message Chapel in Heverlee, the routes are part of Flemish Masters in Situ, an initiative by Visit Flanders to highlight artworks in their original locations.

Since summer 2023, the Flemish Masters in Situ project has sought to present these masterpieces as their creators intended, allowing visitors to see them in the same lighting and surroundings for which they were designed. The network has grown to include 106 locations, ranging from churches and castles to chapels, artist homes and even steam trains. 

The sites showcase the legacy of Jan van Eyck, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Peter Paul Rubens, James Ensor and their contemporaries, whose works shaped Belgian and European art history.

Complete experience

The new routes connect these locations more smoothly, linking them to existing cycling and walking trails while also leading visitors past restaurants and cafés.

According to Peter De Wilde, CEO of Visit Flanders, simply mapping the locations was not enough. Visitors, he said, are looking for a complete experience, which led to the development of routes that tie the sites together. 

The nine trails are in Bruges, Ghent, Kortrijk, Mechelen, Antwerp, the Diest region, the Leie region around Sint-Martens-Latem, the coastal area and Leuven. 

Visit Flanders is also considering a 10th route in southwest Flanders, alongside three additional thematic routes focusing on Anthony van Dyck, reliquaries and artists' homes.

^{#FlandersNewsService | Saint Rumbold’s Cathedral in Mechelen houses Antoon van Dyck’s Christ on the Cross and is part of Visit Flanders’ Masters from Mechelen and More tour © BELGA PHOTO CHARLOTTE GEKIERE}