The stones, sawed and then carved by hand, are rectangular with rugged edges and will be used to turn the Korenmarkt into a striking new square. Once cleaned and arranged, they will shimmer with tones of blue and grey.

“They come from somewhere in Rajasthan,” says Paul Robbrecht, one of the chief architects involved in the project. “We checked to make sure the stones were properly excavated in the right way, and that everyone was paid,” he adds. The colours match Ghent’s historic buildings, but these stones were also selected because the original quarry, located only 35 kilometres away, that supplied the stones for Ghent’s historic churches, is empty.

Cut through the normally picturesque Korenmarkt, both the figurative and literal heart of the city, is a four metre-wide gap for a future tramline that will have a new stop on Cataloniestraat. The tramline dig, resulting in dust as far as the eye can see, is entirely fenced in, and a wooden footbridge allows pedestrians and cyclists to criss-cross the area. Beyond the fencing, in front of the magnificent 12th-century Sint-Niklaas church – Ghent’s oldest – is a yellow bulldozer, construction material and a blue port-a-john.

Anyone who has been to Ghent in the last few months cannot have missed it: two of the city’s main downtown squares, located next to one another, have been demolished in the city’s most ambitious development project in 40 years.

For the moment, the massive engine of the bulldozer is silent, the black smoke and fumes gone. Near the wooden footbridge, a lone Hema employee is handing out flyers to indifferent tourists and locals.

The people rushing through this area are going somewhere else – away from the stacked concrete pipes, the deep trenches and multi-coloured hoses. Almost nobody, except the frustrated employees and owners of surrounding businesses, will remain when the machines start once again early Monday morning.

Johan de Baet, who owns the Du Progress family restaurant on Korenmarkt, is patiently waiting for it all to end. “Business has been down by 30%,” he says. Today, on this brisk November Saturday afternoon, the majority of his tables are empty.

As one couple prepares to leave, De Baet embraces them, a peck on the cheek, and wishes them a pleasant day. He hands them a chocolate given to him by the city officials. On the wrapper is written in Dutch: “Hang on a little bit. Construction is almost finished. Look inside.” Despite the loss in revenue, Johan supports the Korenmarkt renovation project scheduled for completion in March 2010. “In the end, it will be worth it,” he says.

Wannes Haghebaert, the city of Ghent’s Project Communicator, explains that businesses that are losing revenue can, under a set of criteria, obtain financial assistance. But in real terms, the amount offered is insufficient, according to one business owner.

“It’s like €80 a day,” says Emma Lawrence, who runs the The Celtic Towers on another part of Korenmarkt. “It’s not even worth the paper work. We shut several times because we couldn’t even get in. Luckily, we have some die-hard football fans.”

Lawrence, who comes from the south of England, has been running Celtic Towers for two years and says they’ve lost 50% of their business. The pub, ideally located at the foot of Sint-Michiel’s bridge, once had an outdoor terrace that ran the length of the building. Outside, the pub’s Eire flag waves in a strong wind above a narrow sidewalk where people now rub shoulders to pass one another.

Just beyond the sidewalk, behind a chainlink fence, is a large pit for a future underground bicycle shelter and a public toilet facility. Where the bridge ends, the ground drops to a clean layer of concrete surrounded by broken earth. At the far end, are two small bulldozers with their shovels turned down into the mud.

In the pub, the warm glow of the candles on the tables radiate onto the burgundy red walls and crossed wooden beams. Lawrence takes an order from a table of British customers. Two young men are seated at the bar. The pub is mostly empty. “It’s going to be an amazing place when it’s finished,” says Lawrence as she peers out the window. “It’s worth it if you can survive.”

Both the Korenmarkt and the bicycle shelter at Sint- Michiel’s bridge belong to the first phase of the city’s Kobra project. Managed by the Flemish Region, Kobra is a three-phase development project that started this year and will end in 2013. The first phase rings up at nearly €6 million.

Each phase runs for two years. And each phase requires a new assessment which, according to the co-coordinator of the Objective II for the city Ghent, is a huge administrative hassle. Nobody knows, for instance, how the remaining two phases will be financed.

Objective II is an EU-approved European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) finance scheme that hands out money for urban renewal projects. Forty percent of the funding for phase one of the Kobra project comes from the ERDF. The city of Ghent funds 50%, and the remaining 10% is provided by a consortium of Flemish businesses.

Emile Braunplein, just next door to Korenmarkt between the belfry and Sint-Niklaas church, will have a small sloping green and an open wooden pavilion equipped with a bicycle shelter and a café. But that has to wait until 2011. At the moment, it is an archaeological site where researchers are currently digging around in 800 year-old remains found below the leftover cellars of buildings that were demolished on the site in the 1960s.

Ice skaters will have the opportunity to glide across the 13th- to 19th-century ruins on Emile Braunplein during the annual Christmas market, which will continue as usual on the square, as well as on the nearby Sint-Baafsplein. The second phase of the Kobra project, which is scheduled for 2011, also involves turning Goudenleeuwplein and the Poeljemarkt into squares. A new municipal hall is scheduled for phase three.

www.gent.be/kobra