Who lived in the Gravensteen castle?
the Counts of
The Gravensteen (Dutch; literally “Castle of the Counts”) is a medieval castle at Ghent, East Flanders in Belgium. The current castle dates from 1180 and was the residence of the Counts of Flanders until 1353. It was subsequently re-purposed as a court, prison, mint, and even as a cotton factory.
Why is the Gravensteen castle famous?
Constructed over the site of a much weaker looking wooden castle by a pompous count, the fairytale fortress known as Gravensteen became a house of torture and injustice from the 12th-century and was almost torn down later on due to the memory of those atrocities.
How big was the Gravensteen castle?
In the late 11th century Robert the Frisian built a house of stone with the dimensions of 33 x 19 m, in which the walls were two meters thick. But the castle of today was built by Count Philip of Alsace in 1180.
Who built gravensteen castle?
Count Philip of Alsace
Count Philip and his castle: dominating the city Count Philip of Alsace wanted everyone to know that he was the boss. A Latin inscription above the entrance states that Count Philip (1168-1191) built the castle in 1180.
Who built Gravensteen castle?
Who owns olsene?
The listed moated castle Kasteel van Olsene is currently for sale through Engel & Völkers in Belgium for 25 million euros. This luxurious property lies in the municipality of Olsene, around 70 kilometres west of Brussels. “The castle dates back to the 19th century and was extensively renovated between 2004 and 2012.
Is Ghent pretty?
Ghent is a very charming city. It has indeed got some great restaurants, nice bars and excellent clubbing. I like it much more then Bruges.
Is French spoken in Ghent?
There’re two main languages in Belgium: french and dutch, but there’s a small german-speaking community as well. In Ghent, people speak “flemish” which is basically dutch but with a bit different pronunciation and some other words here and there.