Archaeologists Find 16th-Century Spanish Castle and Medieval Neighborhood Under Apartment Site in Belgium

The fortress also hid everything from medieval monks to prehistoric communities.

Archaeologists have uncovered part of the long-buried Spanish Castle, a massive stronghold ordered by Emperor Charles V in the 16th century after the citizens of Ghent rebelled against higher taxes. 

The archaeologists knew that parts of the castle might survive beneath Spaanskasteelplein. But they didn’t expect the scale and quality of what remained.

Beneath the site, researchers have also found soldiers’ living quarters, medieval graves, Roman-era building materials, and prehistoric flint tools. They also uncovered a refuse pit that shows how Spanish troops lived, ate, and occupied the city centuries ago.

“We knew we would find something, but this is really magnificent,” Robby Vervoort, one of the archaeologists involved in the excavation, said.

A fortress built to control a rebellious city

The excavation is taking place at Spaanskasteelplein, a neighborhood in Ghent. It’s one of the more historic places in Europe, and that rich history also includes Spanish occupation in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Charles V ordered the castle‘s construction after suppressing Ghent’s uprising against increased taxation. On May 3, 1540, groups of city officials, guild representatives and residents were forced to walk barefoot through Ghent. At the rear came 50 men dressed in white shirts with hangman’s nooses around their necks, symbolizing that they deserved execution. The episode gave Ghent’s residents their enduring nickname, the stroppendragers, or “noose bearers.”

So this fortress wasn’t meant to protect Ghent from an outside enemy. It was a coercive stronghold built to impose imperial authority over the rebellious city. Ghent’s own archaeology service describes it as a dwangburcht—a fortress of compulsion.

But the humiliation didn’t end there.

Charles chose a particularly painful locations location. Construction required the demolition of much of St Bavo’s Abbey and its surrounding settlement, a site closely connected with Ghent’s early history. Founded by Amand in the seventh century, the abbey had become one of the city’s most important religious institutions. Building a military fortress over it made Ghent’s defeat impossible to ignore.

×

Get smarter every day...

Stay ahead with ZME Science and subscribe.

Daily Newsletter
The science you need to know, every weekday.

Weekly Newsletter
A week in science, all in one place. Sends every Sunday.
No spam, ever. Unsubscribe anytime. Review our Privacy Policy.

Thank you! One more thing...

Please check your inbox and confirm your subscription.

Most of the Spanish Castle was eventually demolished as the Sint-Macharius neighborhood developed during the 19th century. Its foundations, however, remained below ground. As did what was underneath it.

Centuries-old “shit”

The excavation exposed walls thought to have formed part of the castle’s military quarters, where Spanish troops probably lived. The most informative discovery may be a cesspit that also served as a rubbish dump.

Such structures may seem gross to us now, but they preserve unique materials that can show us how these people lived, what they ate, and even what diseases they had. Archaeologists are removing its contents layer by layer, recovering animal remains, seeds, pollen, ceramics, glassware and pieces of wine bottles.

“We are literally standing in centuries-old ‘shit’. All kinds of things were thrown into the pit at the time. Finds are often exceptionally well preserved. We scrape off layer after layer to recover the finds as well as possible. This is an archaeological treasure trove,’ Vervoort added.

Unlike weapons or monuments that tell stories of battles and rulers, these discarded objects offer a glimpse into ordinary life inside regular folk, something historical records rarely describe in detail.

Medieval graves beneath the fortress

The castle was only the latest major structure built on the site.

Near the former abbey church, archaeologists found dozens of human skeletons from a medieval cemetery. The burials date from between the 13th and 16th centuries and may have belonged to people connected with the abbey or its surrounding community. Determining who they were will require further study of the bones and burial contexts.

These objects suggest that people were active in or around the area long before the medieval abbey appeared. Archaeologists must nevertheless interpret them cautiously. Later construction repeatedly disturbed the neighborhood, which makes archaeological interpretation much more difficult..

RelatedPosts

No Content Available

Even so, the collection captures an unusually broad sweep of Ghent’s past. One building site contains traces of prehistoric activity, Roman material, medieval religious life, imperial punishment, military occupation and the modern city that eventually grew over them. The abbey itself, founded during the 7th century, is considered the birthplace of the city. This shows the city was bustling way before the abbey.

“We also found ceramics and building materials from the Roman period. There must have been habitation here even in prehistoric times,” Vervoort said. 

Leaving part of the story underground

The excavation was conducted before work on the new housing development moved forward. Plans called for sections affected by basement construction to be investigated, while another part of the property would remain undisturbed.

Buildings on that protected section were designed without basements, allowing archaeological material to stay underground.

“We believe that the archaeologists of the future will have much better tools at their disposal. They will then be able to continue working on what can still be found there,” Vervoort added.

Leaving part of the site intact recognizes a basic limitation of archaeology: excavation is destructive. Once researchers remove a layer, they cannot put it back in its original context.

For now, some of Ghent’s buried history will remain where it has survived for centuries—under the city that Charles V once tried to bring to heel.