Rabottorens

The Rabot in Ghent is a historic landmark and also the name of the surrounding neighborhood. The term derives from the Dutch word for an early hydraulic structure resembling the predecessor of the modern lock. Originally, the facility was used to dam the water in the Lieve Canal and so overcome differences in elevation before boats had to be hauled overland. The present-day name goes back to the towers of the old city fortifications that once protected this reversing lock. The name derives from the French verb for fitting in beams, which points to the earlier function of the wooden weirs.

The site's history is shaped above all by the year 1488, when the people of Ghent defeated the army of Emperor Frederick III after a siege lasting forty days. This victory was part of the struggle for the autonomy of the estates against Habsburg rule during the Burgundian War of Succession. The memory of this triumph lives on in street names such as Triomfstraat. Construction of the reinforced lock was completed in 1491. Over time, the function of the site changed: in 1860 a brick wing was demolished, and in 1872 the canal was closed off after Ghent had gained other access routes to the sea.

Today the Rabot forms part of the so-called 19th-century belt, which developed in the wake of the booming textile industry. In the 1970s, large apartment blocks went up in the immediate vicinity, visually hemming in the monument. These residential buildings were later replaced by lower structures, and the new courthouse was built on the grounds of the former Rabot train station. The centuries-old towers, popularly also called Torekens, now stand amid an urban environment shaped by modern facilities such as the technology campus of the Katholieke Hogeschool Sint-Lieven.