Friday Market, where the city argued
The Vrijdagmarkt — Friday Market — has been Ghent's great public square since the Middle Ages, and 'public' is the word. Trade on Fridays, executions and celebrations on other days, and no shortage of political shouting in between. That's the statue of Jacob van Artevelde in the middle, the 14th-century leader who tried to steer Ghent's fate and paid for it. Squares like this were the city's living room and its parliament at once.