Smaller but arguably more impressive than the Markt is the adjoining Burg. For more than five centuries the former palace on this majestic site was the seat of the counts of Flanders. The St Donatian Cathedral also stood here until 1799, when religious zealots tore it down. These days the Burg contains the city's most appealing cluster of buildings, plus the contemporary Toyo Ito pavilion, a geometric bunker that sits in a pool of stagnant water opposite the city hall.
To some it creates an image of lightness, progress, transience and evolution; to others it's simply a form that gets the cold shoulder.
