The story behind the 'Red Devil'

The cannon's turbulent biography is the stuff of Flemish history. In 1452 the people of Ghent hauled this absurdly heavy beast out of the city and up to the Edelareberg hill to bombard their rebellious neighbours Oudenaarde. When Burgundian forces struck from the rear, the Ghent fighters fled in such a hurry that they abandoned their prize gun, which the people of Oudenaarde kept as a trophy for over a century, installed in their Cloth Hall.↗

It came home in 1578, when the Calvinist-led city reclaimed it as part of the heavy artillery needed to resist the Spanish; brought by boat up the Scheldt and unloaded on the riverbank, it was found to be unusable. By 1783 it had been fixed onto three carved blocks of local blue-hardstone (arduin) on the little quay-side square where it rests today—a spot named after it, Grootkanonplein, the 'Big Cannon Square'.↗↗

There is a pointed symbolism in how it faces. Where the cannons of the Spaniards' Castle of Emperor Charles once aimed menacingly into the heart of the city, the Dulle Griet's muzzle is trained out toward the great Vrijdagmarkt square—the historic forum of Ghent's civic freedoms—as a standing reminder to anyone who might dare threaten them. As for the name, 'Dulle Griet' (Mad Meg) borrows from the fiery woman of Flemish folklore who, in Bruegel's famous painting, is bold enough to loot even up to the gates of hell; the 'Red Devil' nickname is simpler still, a nod to the red paint with which the gun was coated to intimidate its foes.↗

What to notice up close

The cannon looks almost comically oversized on its small plinth, and that sense of scale is the whole point—stand beside it and let the 5-metre barrel run past you to appreciate the ambition of the medieval engineers who built it. Look for the wrought bands and hoops that hold the barrel together, the Burgundian cross and Golden Fleece firesteels near the breech, and the heavy stone ball laid out in front, carved in 1999 from blocks of Tournai stone to evoke the kind of ammunition it once fired.↗↗

The deep red you see today is a historically researched finish, laid down during a 1999 restoration that peeled back centuries of rust and neglect—before which the harmless old giant had too often served as a rubbish bin or, famously, a bed for drunkards. The barrel has since been closed off to stop it being used that way again, and the monument has been legally protected since 1943. In local affection the cannon has outgrown its warlike past to become a mascot and a symbol of civic pride—so much so that when Oudenaarde once claimed the runaway gun should be returned, Ghenters rallied with hundreds of signatures to keep their Griet home.↗↗

Visiting and around the square

The Dulle Griet stands in the open on Grootkanonplein, the small square tucked just off the Vrijdagmarkt at the edge of central Ghent, only a short walk from the old town's core. There is no ticket and no closing time: it is free and accessible at any hour, with a level, wheelchair-friendly approach, so it is an easy add-on to any stroll through the historic centre.↗

The most fitting companion visit is the café De Dulle Griet on the neighbouring Vrijdagmarkt—one of Ghent's legendary brown cafés, boasting a beer list of well over 250 Belgian bottles—named in the same heroic spirit as the cannon. Combine the two, or use the square as a starting point to take in the Vrijdagmarkt itself, where the statue of the 14th-century city leader Jacob van Artevelde still presides over Ghent's oldest gathering place.↗↗