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:
Photos of Prison de Saint-Gilles:
Main towers and entrance gate
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Definitely not what you would expect for a jail to look like…
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Walls surrounding what is currently the biggest prison of Brussels
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Corner shot
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Main entrance again
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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.
It's a surprisingly nice neighbourhood for St-Gilles
I am interested if anyone has information on the time when Edith Cavel was held in this prison
Can't help you with that buddy, google and you shall find 🙂
"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 😛
She was held in the prison for over 6 weeks…from Aug until she was killed in Oct…cell 27 i think