Geeraard de Duivelsteen

The Geeraard de Duivelsteen ("Geeraard the Devil Castle") is a 13th-century gothic architecture building in Ghent, Belgium. It served as defense of the Portus Ganda, the city's port.

The building was built in the 13th century and was named after the knight Geeraard Vilain (1210-1270), second son of the fifteenth viscount of Ghent, Zeger III of Ghent. Vilain's nickname was "Geeraard de Duivel" ("Geerard the Devil"), which was based on his dark complexion and hair color.

In the 14th century, the building became city property. Over the course of centuries, it was used for various functions; gatherings of knights, as an armory, a monastery, a school, the seminary for the diocese of Ghent, an insane asylum and a prison. In 1775, the Rasphuis near the Coupure channel became the new prison. In 1830, the Geeraard de Duivelsteen became a fire station. Near the end of the 19th century, it was bought by the Belgian state to serve as a national archive. For this purpose, a new wing was built.

Due to the numerous restorations, the building has changed a lot since the Middle Ages. Since 2010, it has been for sale, because of its unsuitability for the storing of archives.

In the Belgian comics series The Adventures of Nero the building is the personal home of Geeraard de Duivel, one of Nero's major antagonists. It is depicted in three stories: "De Hoed van Geeraard de Duivel" ("Geeraard the Devil's hat") (1950), "De Terugkeer van Geeraard de Duivel" ("The Return of Geeraard the Devil") (1983) and "De Kolbak van How" ("The Busby of How") (1993-1994).

It's a central location in Jan Bucquoy's comic book album Gerard de Duivel, written by Bucquoy and drawn by Tito (Tiburcio de la Llave).

It was one of the locations used in the BBC drama series The White Queen.

Text adapted from “Geeraard de Duivelsteen” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Geeraard de Duivelsteen ranks #3,973 of 8,134 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #53 of the 92 mapped in Belgium. Founded 1225, it is older than 75% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 861 atlas entries founded in the 13th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 1,806 times in the last 60 days, more than 64% of the atlas. 7 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Ghent, 1 km away. See how Belgium compares in the castle statistics.

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Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗