Male Castle: Raking detail, keep

A former castle in Male, once a separate village, now part of Sint-Kruis (St. Croix), a suburb of Bruges, West Flanders. The buildings, almost entirely rebuilt and restored after the destruction of World War II, have since 1954 housed St. Trudo's Abbey (Sint-Trudoabdij). Male was held by Philip of Alsace, Count of Flanders, between 1168 and 1191, who replaced the wooden structure with one built of stone, which included a chapel consecrated by the exiled archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket, in 1166. The castle was a residence of the Counts of Flanders. In 1473 it was burnt out and once again rebuilt: the present keep dates from that rebuilding, and stands with its foundations directly in the moat, now flanked by symmetrical wings.