Ligy and Katrien

摘要

At the beginning of the 20th century the lawyer Louis Ligy-Wellens, to whom the house still owes its name, acquired a patchwork of architeotural Ghenl heritage with pleasure garden at Onderbergen. The edifices once belonged to the prestigious 16th-century city palace Hof van Ravenstein, the court of the Dukes of Cleves, which in turn was built on the foundations of a 13th-century cellar and which went through several modifications and renovations during the 17th,18th, and 19th centuries. After Ligy-Wellens' death, the house was again split up into several separate houses. Until 1985, you could find in the corner closest to the Sint-Michiels church the locally renowned shop of Katrien (and later Elza) who sold her "katrienspekken" (Katrien candy) from Lhe Ravenstein cellar. The townhouse with its courtyard is a listed building and part of a protected city scape since 1990， a recognition that, alas, was not met with due consideration. The construction of the underground car park 'Sint-Michielsplein', by the city of Ghent carelessly carved a disfiguration in the architectural whole. The beautiful 18th-century pavilion or glorictte was largely razed to the ground, except for a small corner building, which now stands slightly lost at the end of the courtyard. Only the facade from the coach house remains, although it was completely preserved, and now houses offices. In less than seven years, the beautiful houses, until recently inhabited, degenerated into uninhabitable slums. An ill-considered carcass restoration, with alucrative sale in mind, damaged the building even further by applying the wrong wall paint on the facades.