Castle of the Counts

The Gravensteen features a massive, crenelated stone wall that encircles a central keep, rising directly from the dark waters of the Lieve canal. Built by Philip of Alsace in eleven eighty, this fortress functioned as a deliberate display of power for the Counts of Flanders. Inside the gatehouse, visitors once encountered a notorious torture chamber, though many of those gruesome devices were later revealed as nineteenth century fabrications added to satisfy the public appetite for gothic drama.