500-year-old place with 200 skeletons buried beneath it: Construction workers uncover it

Construction work at Spaanskasteelplein in Ghent has uncovered the remains of a medieval neighbourhood that had been buried for nearly five centuries beneath the site of the city's former Spanish Castle. The excavation has revealed a cemetery holding more than 200 skeletons, stone church foundations, military quarters, household objects and organic material preserved inside an old waste pit. The find offers a rare, layered look at a district of Ghent that was deliberately destroyed in 1540, after which a fortress was built directly on top of it, sealing much of the earlier settlement beneath its walls for hundreds of years.Why an emperor ordered this Ghent neighbourhood destroyedThe area now being excavated once stood near St Bavo's Abbey, before Holy Roman Emperor and Spanish king Charles V ordered the district demolished in 1540. According to VRT NWS, Belgium's public broadcaster, the fortress was built after the people of Ghent rebelled against higher taxes, and Charles responded by having the rebels walk barefoot through the city with a noose around their neck as punishment, an event that gave the people of Ghent their enduring nickname of noose bearers. The Spanish Castle that...