Geel Guide

Geel sits in Flanders, Belgium, on the river Nete in the Campine region, where forests and dunes shape the landscape. It is a working town in the province of Antwerp rather than a postcard, and its calm has a particular reason that you pick up quickly.

Start on the Markt, the market square facing the Sint-Amands church. Café terraces line it, and the rest of the town turns around this spot. Grab a table before you go anywhere else and watch the day go by.

The reason for Geel's reputation is its foster-care model. People with mental illness or intellectual disability live with host families. By day they work in places such as a bicycle workshop, a market garden or a bookbindery, or attend occupational therapy at the hospital. The town has lived with this arrangement for centuries, and daily life here simply absorbs it.

The two big Gothic churches are the obvious sights: the Sint-Dimpnakerk and the Sint-Amanduskerk. Inside the Sint-Dimpnakerk, look for the monumental altarpiece with more than 200 carved oak figures. Guided climbs lead up the unfinished tower and into a small treasure room with paintings and relics.

Smaller finds reward a slow wander. The Saint-Alexis college is decorated with Art Nouveau sgraffiti by Gabriel Van Dievoet. A clock museum, a lamp museum and an old bakery cover the rainy hours. The post windmill Molen van t'Veld is still standing, and the town also keeps a field of orchids, a centenary linden tree, a military cemetery and two more windmills.

For green space, head to De Zegge, a nature reserve near Geel that belongs to the society that owns the Antwerp Zoo. If your trip falls in early August, Reggae Geel takes over a site just outside the centre. It counts as one of the larger reggae festivals in Europe, so expect the whole town to feel different for those days.