Guesthouse PoortAckere

No imposing entrance or red carpet awaits you here. No clue on the outside that behind the centuries-old frontage on Oude Houtlei is an ancient cloister: PoortAckere. We are an oasis of peace, hidden away from the bustle of the city. Once inside you find yourself in a former nunnery whose history goes back to 1278. The building that turned its back on the world for so many centuries now reveals its secrets to a few favoured guests.

The atmosphere is serene and restful, as befits an age-old neo-gothic building. And yet PoortAckere retains its unique character, as a medieval cloister with its own history.

It is its domesticity that gives the building its charm.

In the 'Kapittelzaal', chapter house, looking on to the garden culinary delights await you. You can enjoy your breakfast buffet or a relaxed dinner served under the tracery of neo-gothic arches.

In the guest-house a feeling of peace, freedom and unconcern comes over you in the more austere neo-gothic part of the guesthouse.

There are simple, authentic convent cells with a washbasin and communal showers and toilets in the hall and there is a television in the double rooms.

Perhaps you will sleep in the St Cecilia room or the monastery cell where sister Philomena stayed for so many years.