Welcome Reception
Welcome reception: each delegate is invited on Thursday evening 24 October 2013 to join us for an opening cocktail offered by the city of Ghent. We are happy to welcome you at 18.30 – 20.30 pm in the Pacification room of the Town Hall. However, there is only space available for 250 participants, and therefore participants are invited to collect an invitation card at the registration / information desk in case they are indeed going to attend the reception. Those invitation cards are available on the first come first served basis.
Ghent's large Stadhuis (Town Hall), turns a rather plain Renaissance profile to the Botermarkt, and an almost garishly ornamented Gothic face to the Hoogpoort. Originally intended as the largest city hall in the world by Emperor Charles V, however due to the lack of funds his dream did not materialise. The older elaborate Gothic half of the town hall dates back to the early 16th century whilst the newer section was completed many years later, after the rise of Ghent against the Emperor, in a Renaissance style.
The building still serves as the City’s administrative centre but guided tours allow visitors to see some of the larger rooms including the Pacification Hall which was once the Court of Justice and the site of the signing of the Pacification of Ghent, a treaty between Catholics and Protestants against Hapsburg rule in 1576. This document declared to the world the repudiation by the Low Countries provinces of Spanish Habsburg rule and their intention to permit freedom of religion within their boundaries.
The Pacification Room is probably the most well-known room of the Ghent Town Hall.
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