Ghent 3

I started my morning walk at the Town Hall or Stadhuis, a Flamboyant Gothic edifice, built at the beginning of the 16th century. Here I am in the historic Ceremonial Room, where modern day marriages are performed by the Mayor. Nearby was a narrow lane devoted to grafitti. Here is an example of the street art. Further on I came across two particularly fine gabled façades. I finished up at the Castle of the Counts. This rough-stone fortress was built in 1180 and gave me a feeling of what the medieval world was like as I wandered through its towers and around its ramparts. One section of the Castle was devoted to the instruments of torture used to punish heretics and criminals or extract confessions. For example, one devise was the rack, designed to pull the victim's limbs apart. A prisoner's  arms and legs were tied to opposite ends of the machine. The torturer then turned the crank, leaving the victim either with dislocated joints or even limbless. For public executions, a prison would be stretched over a wheel and the executioner would break his or her bones with a hammer, leaving the victim to die from shock or dehydration.







Comments

  1. Unknown3 July 2018 at 02:06

    Looking good Neil! Gruesome lot those mediEVILS!😲

    ReplyDelete

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