It is now an annual tradition: skating on artificial ice on a pontoon island. The water in which the pontoon was located is called the Minnewater, a small oblong lake also called the “Lake of Love.
It is not a natural lake, but it originated in the 13th century as a kind of reservoir or buffer basin at a point where several small rivers converged before flowing collectively into the city.
For centuries, the Minnewater was also the regular mooring place for the Ghent Barge, the train barge that sailed back and forth between Ghent and Bruges.
