Oudenaarde owes its fame in historical terms largely to the town hall, one of the most beautiful examples of Brabantine late Gothic in our country. The great value of the building lies in the extremely pure proportions and in the unparalleled monumentality.
The iconic town hall of Oudenaarde is just under 500 years old. It is of a delicate beauty, a monument that conquers all hearts. It is charming and rises lively and graceful above the city. It is like a shrine in the middle of the market, surrounded by the hills of the Flemish Ardennes. Victor Hugo once wrote: "in this fantastic building there is not a single detail that is not worth looking at".
For many Oudenaarde residents, the town hall is a place of joy and sorrow, of parties, formal receptions and weddings. A place that one certainly passes by at least once in a lifetime. For visitors it is one of the most beautiful town halls in our country, a pearl of late Gothic architecture but above all it is home to the MOU Museum Oudenaarde.
In the historical rooms there is always a different atmosphere, you can see the fault line between old and new, there is a surprising story. You will find the Oudenaarde tapestries in the adjacent 14th century cloth hall, under the attic roof a magnificent collection of goldsmith's work, administrative rooms such as the aldermen's hall with the historical and royal portrait gallery, the large reception hall or People's Hall with historical wall paintings, the guardians' room with 18th century archive cabinets, the weighing room or city scales, a chapel with a restoration studio and countless more rooms, each with its own identity.
(Visit Oudenaarde)