Tolhuis

The Tolhuis in Bruges stands out for its high, stepped gable topped with a stone statue of a lion holding a shield. Built in the late fifteenth century, this house served as the city’s tax office for goods entering through the canal. In fourteen eighty-eight, residents dragged the Austrian representative Maximilian the First from this building and held him prisoner in a nearby house, forcing him to sign away his authority. The tax collectors moved out long ago, and private residents moved in.