The claim
Opposite Ghent's belfry and town hall, Den Turk is a proper brown café favoured by local politicians and old regulars, with a savings-club cabinet of numbered slots on the wall and portraits of local characters. It likes to call itself the city's oldest café; historians suggest tavern use began after 1567, but its atmosphere is timeless.
What the records show
No source we can open puts a year on this house. Ghent's own visitor guide calls Den Turk a 15th-century house that claims to be the oldest café in the city, and the Belgian beer press says the same without a date; the café itself posts only on social media. The 1228 and 1340 that circulate are traditional. Local research published in December 2004 concluded the building was occupied by a guild until 1567, so it could have become a tavern at the earliest after that, and possibly only after 1703.
What to look for inside
- Traditional claim of 1228 foundation
- The Flemish inventory dates the house to the third quarter of the 15th century
- Catalogued under the heading of inns, as Herberg De Turk
- Restored 1910–12 by the architect Hendrik Geirnaert
- Coin 'spaarkas' savings cabinet for regulars
- Opposite the Belfry and Town Hall
Visiting
Café Den Turk is in Ghent, Belgium, at Botermarkt 3, 9000 Gent. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.
Sources
- www.belgiansmaak.com/cafe-den-turk/
- visit.gent.be/en/eat-drink/cafe-den-turk
- inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be/erfgoedobjecten/24549
- web.archive.org/web/20240917111053/https://inventaris.onroerenderfgoed.be/erfgoedobjecten/24549
Know something we don’t?Suggest a correctionLast checked Sept 2026
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Free to put on your own site, no permission needed. It shows what the pub claims and what the records support, and it changes when the data does.
How to use it, and how to change what it says — if you have a document we have not seen, we would like to read it.
