Belgian seaside resorts: Must-sees in upmarket Knokke-Heist
Ostend is the queen of the seaside resorts in Belgium, but the coast is dotted with appealing towns that deserve a closer look. In this series, Belga English presents four popular places by the water, each with their own particularities. Today: Knokke-Heist, where luxury is in abundant supply.
Walking around Knokke-Heist, visitors will be sure to meet plenty of villas with a hefty price tag: this is the most expensive town in Belgium to buy a house, with prices averaging 807,500 euros in 2024. The well-known neighbourhood of Knokke-Le Zoute remains the most exclusive spot in town.
Another important example of the fancy character of Knokke-Heist is the Royal Zoute Golf Club, one of the most prestigious in Europe. Located in the heart of Knokke, the club has two 18-hole courses: the Championship and the Executive.
Also luxurious yet open to all are the many boutiques and galleries in the town. According to one count, there are about 70 art galleries in Knokke, where art lovers can enjoy the works from many international masters from Appel to Zadkine, so to speak.
But they can also marvel at art in the public space, like Jean-Michel Folon’s quintessential Belgian bronze sculpture of a sitting man with a hat, who is gradually submerged in the sea as the tide comes in.
Different reality
The For Freedom Museum highlights an entirely different reality, that of the grim times of the Second World War. It includes displays of excavated aircraft remains and original vehicles and uniforms.
The uniforms come from the collection of Patrick Tierssoone and Freddy Jones, two old school friends. Jones is the son of a British Normandy veteran who married a woman from Knokke-Heist. The military uniform that his father wore at his wedding was the first in his collection. Many people, often Canadian, later donated uniforms belonging to family members.
Knokke-Heist is Belgium’s easternmost coastal town, bordering the Netherlands, and in between is the Zwin Provincial Nature Reserve: one of the most important mud-flat and tidal-marsh areas on the coast, flooded daily by the sea.
This makes it an exceptional habitat with rich vegetation and vast numbers of birds coming to forage or spend the winter. Among its feathered inhabitants, the storks are the biggest crowd-pullers.
In the Scharpoord cultural centre, a temporary zoo has been set up until 24 August, one that brings together the fantastic beasts created by the late Belgian artist Panamarenko.
Through surprising stories and a wide selection of sculptures, drawings, photographs, moving images, souvenirs and paraphernalia, Zoo at Sea showcases Panamarenko’s love of animals and its artistic consequences.
The exhibition complements Panamarenko’s permanent installation Waving Crabs – three floating islands with fountains, crabs and a vortex – which has been on display at Knokke’s Zegemeer lake since 2011.
Until 24 August, the annual Cartoon Festival Knokke-Heist take place for the 64th time, this time with the theme Had Enough Laughs? Visitors can discover 100 cartoons from every corner of the globe, collected as part of the Golden Hat competition, the oldest cartoon competition in the world.
A second exhibition features a selection of the best political cartoons published in the Belgian press in the past 25 years, as well as highlights of 2024.
#FlandersNewsService | People on the seafront at Knokke-Heist © BELGA PHOTO NICOLAS MAETERLINCK
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