Saturday 27 June 2009

The Gravensteen Castle, Gent, June 2009

Slap bang in the center of the historical center of Gent (Ghent) is the medieval castle Gravensteen.
This clip is a combined view of the front and back of the castle. On Monday I will be some photographs of the castle.

The Gravensteen Castle in Gent (Ghent)



BBE

2 comments:

A Lady's Life said...

very nice video of life around a castle. The castle has a moat it seems and the other houses down below seem to also be built on the moat. Interesting. And here we are worried about our basements flooding lol

BBE said...

That's not a moat, that is the canal. Most of medieval Flanders was connected by a system of rivers and canals, even right through the old town centers, so the easiest and quickest way for an enemy to take a town was by boat. Because of this many of the old town castles in Flanders where built next to the canals or rivers coming into the towns, so that barriers could be dropped across the waterways and arrows, hot oil and all kinds of nasty stuff could be rained down on invaders boats, from the castle. Unlike most of the castles that I have seen in the UK and the rest of Europe, the castle is there to protect the water, rather than the other way around.

I bet the cellers still flood though :)

BBE