Ghent - Famous People

Famous People

• Saint Bavo, patron saint of Ghent (589–654)
• Saint Livinus of Ghent, (580–657)
• Henry of Ghent, scholastic philosopher (c. 1217–1293)
• Jacob van Artevelde, statesman and political leader (c. 1290–1345)
• John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster (1340–1399)
• Jan van Eyck, painter (c. 1385–1441)
• Hugo van der Goes, painter (c. 1440–1482)
• Jacob Obrecht, composer of the Renaissance (c. 1457–1505)
• Pedro de Gante, Franciscan missionary in Mexico (c. 1480–1572)
• Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, Karel V, Charles Quint (1500–1558)
• Cornelius Canis, composer of the Renaissance, music director for the chapel of Charles V in the 1540s–1550s
• Daniel Heinsius, scholar of the Dutch Renaissance (1580–1655)
• Caspar de Crayer, painter (1582–1669)
• Josse Boutmy, composer, organist and harpsichordist (1697–1779)
• Frans de Potter, writer, (1834–1904)
• Jan Frans Willems, writer (1793–1846)
• Joseph Guislain, physician (1797–1860)
• Hippolyte Metdepenningen, lawyer and politician (1799–1881)
• Louis XVIII of France was exiled in Ghent during the Hundred Days in 1815
• Charles John Seghers, Jesuit clergyman and missionary (1839–1886)
• Victor Horta, Art Nouveau architect (1861–1947)
• Maurice Maeterlinck, poet, playwright, essayist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature (1862–1949)
• Frans Rens, writer, (1805–1874)
• Leo Baekeland, chemist and inventor of Bakelite (1863–1944)
• Pierre Louÿs, poet and romantic writer (1870–1925)
• Marthe Boël, feminist (1877–1956)
• Karel van de Woestijne, writer (1878–1929)
• Corneille Jean François Heymans, physiologist and recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1892–1968)
• Gustave Van de Woestijne, painter (1881–1947)
• Suzanne Lilar, essayist, novelist, and playwright (1901–1992)
• Jean Daskalidès, gynecologist and founder of Leonidas chocolates (1922–1992)
• Willy De Clercq, liberal politician and European Commissioner (1927–2011)
• Jacques Rogge, International Olympic Committee President (1942–)
• Marc Mortier, first CEO (1986–2002) of Flanders Expo (1948–2004)
• Gabriel Ríos, musician
• Cédric Van Branteghem, sprinter athlete
• Soulwax, electronic/rock band: brothers David and Stephen Dewaele
• Xavier Henry, shooting guard for the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies
• Bradley Wiggins, British cyclist