Belfries of Belgium and France

The Belfries of Belgium and France are a society of 56 historical buildings designated by UNESCO as World Heritage Site, in confession of an architectural manifestation of emerging civic independence from feudal and religious influences in historic Flanders and contiguously regions of the Duchy of Burgundy.

UNESCO inscribed 32 towers onto its list of Belfries of Flanders and Wallonia in 1999. In 2005, the belfry of Gembloux in the Walloon Region of Belgium and 23 belfries from the Nord-Pas-de-Calais and Picardy regions in the northern tip of France were appended to the renamed list. A notable omission is the Brussels City Hall belfry, as it was already share of the Grand Place World Heritage Site.


However not all of this World Heritage work of 56 tower structures are civic/municipal monuments. Also included are three church towers on the allegation that these had served as watchtowers or agitation towers. These are the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, the St. Rumbolds Tower in Mechelen, and the St. Leonard's Church in Zoutleeuw.

Most of these belforts are towers projecting from broader buildings. Few of them are notable as standalone tower structures, of which, a handful are remodeled standalone towers formerly associated to adjacent-door buildings.