From, Beautiful Buildings in France & Belgium, Including many which have been destroyed during the war. Reproductions in Colour and Monochrome from rare old Prints and Drawings, by and after Prout, Boys, Coney, W. Callow, David Roberts, C. Wild and others, with descriptive notes, by C. Harrison Townsend, F.R.I.B.A.; New York: The Hubbell Publishing Co., 1916; pp. 98-101.
GHENT : CHÂTEAU DES COMTES
(T. S. Boys)
INCE Boys’ sketch was made, the whole of the buildings shown by him as obliterating the greater part of this old Palace of the Counts of Flanders have been swept away, and an interesting — though perhaps too conjectural — restoration of the building to its XIIth century condition has not long been completed. Open on its frontages to streets and market-place, the old Castle now stands “four-square to all the winds that blow,” and the picturesque jumble of houses shown by the artist leaning against its ancient walls has disappeared. Again we have brought before us the problem as to how far we to-day are the gainers by sacrificing such accretions of buildings as these (which are,
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of themselves, paragraphs in the history of the life of the town) to the revelation, by their destruction, of what the original building was, or maybe, even of what we imagine it to have been.
It is commonly supposed that it was in this stronghold of the Counts of Flanders that Charles V was born, in 1500. As a matter of fact, his birth took place in the Cour des Princes, long since destroyed, leaving no other record than the name of a street, and not far from the old monastery now adapted to hold the town’s collection of pictures.
The surrender of Ghent was, on September 7, 1914, demanded by General Von Boehn, and, in view of the loss to the world which its destruction would have implied, the Burgomaster and the invaders entered into a treaty which has, at all events, saved the city from more than partial demolishment.
Copyright © 2007 by Elfinspell