On 20 January 1590, Cathelyne Van den Bulcke was executed as a witch on the Grand Place. Following heavy torture, she confessed her communion with the devil Moonvaeyer (see location Prisoners' Gate). The city rulers of Lier sentenced her to death. The executioner strangled Van den Bulcke before burning her.
For centuries, the Grand Place was the usual place for executions and corporal punishments. For example, 4 Protestants were burned at this spot in 1551. Henneken Robbens was also burned at the stake here in 1417, for homosexuality. In 1438, the people of Lier witnessed Lisbeth van Sprongele in the pillory, after she had beaten her husband.
Public punishments had a dual purpose. In the first instance, the aim was to warn people of the fate that awaited criminals. But it was also popular entertainment. Executions attracted a lot of spectators, often with the whole family. Splattered blood was eagerly collected with handkerchiefs and used as a talisman. It was not until the 19th century that public executions were seen as barbaric. The last execution on the Grand Place was in 1842, when Hendrick De Backer went under the guillotine for murdering the priest of Nijlen.
That dark past lives on in a small stone at the centre of the Grand Place. In popular parlance, it was called the "heksensteen" (witches stone), in reference to Van den Bulcke. In 2021, the witch's stone was upgraded with a memorial circle. The city council, on the initiative of the "Act of reparation for Cathelyne" committee, also granted this courageous woman full reparation 431 years after she was sentenced to death.
Read the historical background here
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