Gent · BE

Dulle Griet

Parked on a tiny cobbled square at the edge of Ghent's old town, the Dulle Griet is one of the largest medieval cannons to survive from Western Europe: a 5-metre, 12-tonne monster of hand-forged wrought iron, painted a defiant red. Made for the Dukes of Burgundy in the 15th century and dragged into action against the rival city of Oudenaarde, this is the gun the locals nicknamed the 'Red Devil'—and it has been a landmark and a symbol of Ghent's stubborn civic pride ever since. It costs nothing to see, stands in the open day and night, and rewards a close look: the Burgundian cross and firesteels around its touch-hole, the carved stone cannonball at its muzzle, and the story etched into every iron hoop. Pair it with a stop at the legendary beer café nearby and you have a satisfying ten-minute detour in the heart of the city.