3D print the Gravensteen
A free, printable model of the Gravensteen and the water, streets and buildings around it, generated from real map data in your browser.
Free, in your browser. Exports a slicer-ready 3MF.
About the Gravensteen
The Gravensteen is a medieval castle in Ghent, East Flanders, Belgium; its Dutch name means 'the Counts' stone castle'. The stone castle dates to 1180, when Philip of Alsace built it on the site of an older fortification, and the Counts of Flanders lived there until 1353. Crusader castles that Philip saw on the Second Crusade may have inspired it. Besides being a protective citadel, it was meant to intimidate Ghent's townspeople, who often challenged the counts' authority.
Inside an oval fortified wall ringed by 24 small échauguettes stand a big central keep (donjon), a residence and assorted smaller buildings. A sizeable moat, filled from the river Lys, surrounds them. After the counts left, the castle declined. Until the 18th century it served as both a court and a prison, and it was Ghent's mint from 1353 to 1491. In the 19th century it became a cotton mill, and at one stage it was slated to be torn down.
The City of Ghent bought parts of the castle gradually and began a major restoration in 1893 under the architect Joseph De Waele, who tried to return it to its imagined 12th-century appearance. Many details added then, among them the flat roofs and the east outbuilding's windows, are not thought to be accurate to the original. The castle was the focal point of the 1913 Ghent World Fair.
How it prints
Make this print opens the generator on a 600 m square around the landmark. Buildings print at close to true scale, so the landmark grows with the print size.
| Print size | Landmark height | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| 160 mm default | 9 mm | 1:3,750 |
| 200 mm | 11 mm | 1:3,000 |
| 256 mm | 14 mm | 1:2,344 |
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North
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East
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South
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West
- Battlements and a ring of turrets
- Small notched battlements crown the keep, and many tiny turrets ring the oval wall. Print friendly adapts these small details to the print scale; Full detail keeps them, which suits a larger print.
- A castle in a moat
- The round wall stands within a curve of water. A bigger print size keeps the wall and keep proportions clearer, and layers of 0.12 to 0.16 mm keep the notched tops crisp.
- Pick the detail for your nozzle
- In the Buildings settings, set Landmark detail to Print friendly to adapt thin parts and small details to the print scale. Full detail keeps every modeled feature, for larger prints or a finer nozzle.
- Colors
- Buildings, roads, water and ground arrive as separate filament slots in the 3MF. The Gravensteen takes the building color.
- File format
- You get a 3MF for Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer or PrusaSlicer. Any of them can save it as STL if you need one.
About this model
The Gravensteen is one of more than 2,300 landmark models in Mini Skyline. They are made with AI, and each one is checked from four sides in its real surroundings before release. Everything around it is built from OpenStreetMap and Overture map data. If you would rather print the shape from map data, turn off Landmark models in the Buildings settings.
Common questions
Is there a Gravensteen STL I can download?
Mini Skyline builds the file for you in your browser and exports 3MF, which every major slicer opens. If you need an STL, open the 3MF in your slicer and export it from there.
How big can I print it?
Any print size from 40 mm across. The Gravensteen grows with the print: about 9 mm tall on the default 160 mm print. For a model larger than your printer bed, Project Mode splits the area into tiles.
Is it free?
Yes. Generation runs in your browser, with no account and nothing behind a paywall.
