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Great Cannon

Great Cannon

Highlight • Monument

Great Cannon

Recommended by 130 hikers out of 143

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Location: Ghent, Gent, East Flanders, Flanders, Belgium

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Tips

Willem VS

January 31, 2021

A big piece of equipment, that iron Dulle Griet. The cannon is 5 meters long and weighs no less than 12,500 kg. The Dukke Griet was painted ox red, which gave it the name "grooten rooden duyvele". Not much is actually known about this bombarde (placed on a block to shoot stone, later iron, projectiles by means of gunpowder). It is said that it was Duke Philip the Good who ordered the cannon to be made around 1430 and that it was probably used during the siege of Oudenaarde in 1452. Other sources state that it never fired a single projectile. It was then moved from Oudenaarde to Ghent with the intention of using it to defend the city.
Because of the cannon, this is the Groot Kanonplein (Great Cannon Square), but probably only a handful of Ghent residents know this.
A dulle griet is an angry woman, but how the link is with the cannon is also not exactly known.

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Katrien

December 29, 2020

This impressive wrought iron cannon weighs 12,500 kg and is popularly known as Dulle Griet (evil woman).

However, the cannon had little more than a big mouth, because it never fired. Because it was used too often as a garbage can or a sleeping place for drunks (the café of the same name, De Dulle Griet, prides itself on selling more than 250 types of beer), the barrel was permanently closed off a few years ago.

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🇧🇪 Herwig Aertbeliën

March 31, 2022

Dulle Griet is a monumental iron bombard in the Belgian city of Ghent. Because of its original red colour, the cannon was also traditionally called the groten rooden duyvele (great red devil). The bombard dates from 1431 and was probably made by Jean Cambier, the great arms supplier of the Burgundian Duke Philip the Good. It was brought to Ghent in 1578 together with other weapons from Oudenaarde to be used there in the battle against the Spanish. It is unclear whether the cannon was stolen or received.

It is a so-called cercled cannon that was made from wrought iron rods around which iron hoops were placed. With a length of 5.025 metres and (according to measurements by the Ghent city services) a weight of 12,250 kg, it was an unusually large artillery for the time. The original weight may even have been 12,500 kg, but over the centuries the total weight has decreased due to rust. The bombarde could fire stone projectiles with a diameter of 64 cm and an (estimated) weight of up to 295 kg. The wooden trestles on which Dulle Griet originally rested were replaced in 1783 by decorated supports of blue limestone.

Since 1943, the Dulle Griet has been a protected monument. The square where the cannon stands is called Groot Kanonplein.
Source: nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dulle_Griet_(kanon)

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Elevation 50 m

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Location: Ghent, Gent, East Flanders, Flanders, Belgium

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Great Cannon

1. Gravensteen Castle, Ghent – St. Michael's Bridge loop from Ghent

2. Sint-Michielsbrug – Oud Postgebouw loop from Ghent

3. Graffiti Alley – City hall loop from Tolhuis

Other Popular Places to Check Out

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