The Ghent Castle of Gerald the Devil ia also known as the Ghent Geeraard de Dulvelsteen and the Gent Chateau de Gerard le Diable. Just behind the Saint Bavo's Cathedral lies the impressive castle of Gerald the Devil. It is on the eastern edge of Ghent old town on the river bank.

This little castle was one of the first houses to be built in stone. It is more a fortified manor house rather than a castle. It was not designed to withstand a full siege as can be seen by the amount of windows visible in the outer wall.

A couple of cannon balls hitting the side of the building would destroy it. The castle of Geraard de Duivelstraat was designed to impress. It says 'look at this building and see how rich and powerful I am'. This is now the Public Records Office of Gent and is open Mondays 1pm  to 4.30pm and Tuesday to Friday 8.30am to 4.30pm. Closed Sat & Sunday.

According to legend, the aristocrat who lived here who was called Gerald. He was nicknamed 'the devil' because he married five times, each time however, his wife mysteriously died, believed murdered, to enable Geraard to marry another one. Another account states that it was named after a person called Geraard Vilain. He had a black skin and black hair so was called the Devil 'Duivel'.

This building might be the oldest monument in Ghent having been constructed in 1245. The castle has been used for numerous things: knight quarters, weapon depot, monastery, school, and Episcopal seminary. In 1623, it became a mental health hospital and, later, a home for boy orphans. Another part of the building was used as a jail or detention centre.

The Duivelsteen is a notable example of a 13th century feudal dwelling. The 13 large pointed arch windows reveal an urge for comfort and light. A new wing in neo-Gothic style has also been added. The main building consists of a crypt with column supports and two upstairs floors, each with halls next to each other where the public records are kept.

As regards the interior, only the arched area dates from the 13th century. However, this section was also fundamentally restored in 1891. It is an impressive area which is divided up by three rows of five round heavy pillars with patterned capitals in four hornbeams. They are spanned by four Tournai-stone cross-vaults with natural stone cuts.

The city of Ghent have done magnificent restoration work on this building. The last 300 years were not good for this building. It was in a bad state of repair and the spires and crenulations had been knocked down and covered by a larger cover all roof. Some of the windows were partially bricked up. The building looked just another guildhall warehouse built along the riverbank.

The council stripped the new roof off and restored the old original smaller roof. This enabled the spires and crenulations to be rebuilt. The building now looked like a castle. It is worth walking past the front of the castle, up the river. There are a some interesting attractive white painted buildings to the north of Gerald the Devil's Castle.

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