Court of Appeal

The court was, as mentioned, built according to the design of Louis Roelandt on the site of the former Recollect monks' monastery from 1836 to 1846. As for the style, the architect was clearly inspired by the Italian Renaissance. The complex of two and a half stories is built of brick and clad with French limestone mixed with hardstone for the pilasters, cornices, and frames. The front and rear facades consist of thirteen bays with a central risalit of five bays marked by a portico on a podium in classicist style, consisting of a main entablature with a triangular pediment supported by eight colossal columns with Corinthian capitals and in the front façade (to the north) accessible on both sides via a staircase. The sculptural filling of the tympanum was sculpted in 1961 by Geo Verbanck. The corner risalits are defined by colossal pilasters with recessed shafts and Corinthian capitals. The ground floor with flattened bossage is provided with round-arched windows. Rectangular upper windows topped with a triangular pediment resting on Corinthian pilasters and in the central risalit covered with a cornice, balustrades worked out as balustrades between pedestals. Mezzanino above the large rectangular windows of the upper floor, illuminated by means of square windows in the risalit through rose windows. The attic is openwork to a balustrade running over the four facades. Side facades of eleven bays. Central bay with a large round-arched window on the upper floor, flanked by Corinthian pilasters and topped with a triangular pediment. The third and ninth bays are wider and taller. Furthermore, the same features as the front and rear facades. Original furnishings destroyed by fire in 1926. In 1886, the monument of Hippolyte Metdepenningen (1799-1881) was inaugurated in the courtyard of the court. The statue of the freemason, first doctor of law from the Ghent university, is by Julien Dillens (1849-1909) and was cast in the ateliers of the Compagnie des Bronzes in Brussels.

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