Kasteel van Melderen

En un regard

Le château en bref

Melderen Castle (Kasteel ter Melderen), Veldestraat 148 in Merendree (Deinze, East Flanders), is a country villa built in 1900 to designs by the architect Jozef De Waele for Maurice Metdepenningen, son of Hippolyte Metdepenningen of Ghent. It replaced an earlier small castle and takes its name from the locality of Meldere(n), recorded in the Atlas des chemins vicinaux of 1843-1845. Two storeys under a hipped slate roof, walls of glazed brick decorated with bands and green relieving arches, and an Art Nouveau wrought-iron balcony across three bays give it the character of a seaside-style country residence of the turn of the twentieth century. The central projecting bay, originally taller and topped by a small tower, was replaced in 1982 by a simple triangular pediment. Inside survive a hall with a mosaic floor and a neo-Flemish Renaissance salon with a timber ceiling. The landscaped park, with its pond, gas lanterns brought from the city of Ghent, and a garden bridge decorated with lions, which the inventory associates with Count Frederik van der Stegen de Putte, surrounds the house. The latter married Maurice's widow in 1905; the estate then passed to Maurice Van Landegem, who was also mayor of Merendree.