Home Prison Prison de Saint-Gilles

Prison de Saint-Gilles

by Vincent

The prison de Saint-Gilles, which replaced Carmes prison in the Sablon, was built between 1878 and 1884 and was the work of the engineer, Francois Derré the architect, Joseph Dumont. The jail is in a purely Tudor style that resembles a medieval castle or fort and was built according to the ideas of 19th century criminologists, including the first General Inspector of prisons, Edouard Ducpétiaux (1804-1869).

Location of Prison of Saint-Gilles:


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Photos of Prison de Saint-Gilles:

Main towers and entrance gate

Definitely not what you would expect for a jail to look like…

Walls surrounding what is currently the biggest prison of Brussels

Corner shot

Main entrance again

6 comments

Dave Sandberg February 21, 2011 - 8:37 am

In 1980 I lived at 96 avenu Albert in an apartment overlooking the prison yard. It is all red brick on the back side of the prison.

Reply
Vincent September 5, 2011 - 5:42 am

It's a surprisingly nice neighbourhood for St-Gilles

Reply
Graham September 4, 2011 - 8:57 am

I am interested if anyone has information on the time when Edith Cavel was held in this prison

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Vincent September 5, 2011 - 5:41 am

Can't help you with that buddy, google and you shall find 🙂

Reply
Amy February 3, 2012 - 1:26 am

"She was arrested on 3 August 1915 and charged with harbouring Allied soldiers. She was held in St Gilles prison for 10 weeks, the last two in solitary confinement,[6] and was court-martialled."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edith_Cavell – The wiki page where I found it 😀

I know its a bit late, but I don't care, I wanna sound smart 😛

Reply
Jon March 22, 2012 - 6:02 pm

She was held in the prison for over 6 weeks…from Aug until she was killed in Oct…cell 27 i think

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