The first historical traces of a building on the location where currently
the Damberd café is situated dates back to as early as the 13th century.

Remnants, a column with an acanthusleaf ornated chapittel, early medieval foundations, artisanal roof trusses substantiate an initial activity as storage depot for grain; not illogic considering its location on a grainmarket (korenmarkt means grainmarket) and in its vicinity a mainly commercial harbour.

Centuries later -around the second half of the 15th century- the city archives mention a tavern with stables on that specific location named
" die Scaec " (which is medieval Dutch for " the chessboard ").
Afterwards, historical sources remain silent until the mid of the 18th century, during this period of French occupation the tavern is named
" Le Damier/ Het Damberd " (draughtboard). Probably, the gaining popularity of draughts caused this change, however, the direction
has no intention in changing its name again now that chess seems to become again more popular. The style of the interior accentuates this ambiguïty. From then on the pub stays open on the original location and under the same name. This makes The Damberd to be one of the oldest taverns in Ghent that can substantiate its origin with historical references.

The typical interior decoration dates from 1936 when two customers,
a certain Vercruyssen and his friend De Bruyckere made a drunken bet with the proprietor to redecorate the whole interior of the pub in one single day. They succeeded and their effort is still visible on our interior walls. What those two men exactly won is unknown but the nine panels evoking interesting views of the city, executed in sepia-technique on a wooden base possess a historical value hence a lot of those sites have disappeared or are unrecognizably altered, which is also why the Ghent Service for the Patrimonium and Monuments classified them in such a manner that they are not allowed to disappear from the interior of the pub. So no Mc Donalds tasteless disaster here.

Next >>