Fort Leopoldus 1647

This fort was probably erected after the capture of the nearby Sas van Gent by the Staatsen in 1644 and before the conclusion of the peace of Munster in 1648. It thus became a kind of Spanish counterfort west of Sas van Gent. The name is derived from Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, governor of the Southern Netherlands from 1647 to 1656. It is one of the last forts established during the Eighty Years' War and is similar to Fort Francipani. However, the form is simpler; It was a trapezoidal fortress surrounded by an inner moat, a glacis, and an outer moat. The vertices of the glacis were 200m apart. Now there is not much to see; but south of the Staakstraat (= the Oude Graaf Jansdijk) the glacis can still be recognized in the shape of the field. The moat around the field follows the course of the former outer moat.

Bomoto