Rupelmonde Castle lies in the village of Rupelmonde, on the banks of the Schelde river, west of Antwerp in Belgium. Rupelmonde Castle is also known as the 'Graventoren'; which translates to the Count's Tower, or the 'Mercatortoren'.

Rupelmonde Castle was built, by the Counts of Flanders, in the 12th century directly opposite the mouth of the river Rupel into the Schelde river to defend these rivers. It was a large fortress with 17 towers circled by a moat. From this castle toll was levied from passing ships.

Later on the castle was also used as a state prison. This caused the castle to play a important role in the history of the region.

Here are a couple of events connected to the castle: Robrecht Van Bethune, Count of Flanders, imprisoned his eldest son Lodewijk van Nevens here under the accusation of high treason.

In 1388, Zeger van Kortrijk, ally of Gwijde van Dampierre, was beheaded here. Filips The Good kept Frank van Borselen, husband of Jacoba van Beieren, imprisoned here. In 1538 an alleged witch; Kathelyne Duerincx, was kept prisoner and tortured here before being burned at the stake in the nearby town of Sint-Niklaas. Also Gerardus Mercator (the famous cartographer) was imprisoned here for 7 months, in 1544, under the accusation of herecy.

In 1678, when Spanish and Dutch troops were fighting against French troops, the castle was destroyed. The castle was never rebuild and turned into a quarry for cheap building materials for the locals.

In 1817 the castle ruins were demolished with exception of a base of a tower with some connecting wall fragments. On these remains then a tower out of red Doornik limestone was built by Baron De Feltz. This tower was used as a hunting pavillion. In 1955 the tower was turned into a museum about local history.

The small museum in the tower can be visited but it was closed when I visited and I couldn't find out any opening times.

Left: the entrance to the towerbase. Right: a 17th century drawing of the castle.

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