Execution Bridge, Ghent

The Execution Bridge or Decapitation Bridge is a bridge and former public execution location in Ghent, Belgium. It is located beside the city's Gravensteen Castle, crossing a branch of the Leie river, which forms a moat for the castle there. The bridge is a well loved tourist destination.

History

From 1371 or earlier, murderers and rapists were executed by decapitation on the medieval stone bridge. The most recent recorded execution took place in 1585. Until 1799, the bridge was decorated with the statues of two figures, recalling an oft-repeated legend:
A contemporary engraving shows how the two statues were positioned on the side of the bridge at the moment when the son, standing behind the kneeling father who has evidently had his hands bound, raises the sword. The statues were accompanied by an inscription: "Ae Gandte le en Fant fraepe sae pere se Tacte desuu / Maies se Heppe rompe, si Grace de Dieu. MCCCLXXI". However, the statues were removed at the end of the eighteenth century and appear not to have survived.
Albrecht Dürer indeed visited Ghent in 1521 and saw the two statues. He recorded the legend in his travel diary, but according to other sources missed the point: "I also saw on the bridge the place where people's heads are cut off, where two statues have been erected to commemorate a son cutting off his father's head".