Moregem Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Moregem Castle, in Moregem (Wortegem-Petegem, East Flanders), near Oudenaarde, is a residence in the Louis XVI and Directoire styles, built between 1792 and 1798 for Baron E.F. Van Hoobrouck de Mooreghem on the site of a water tower dating from 1588. It is a rectangular brick volume under a slate hipped roof, with a semicircular perron and a canopy from the 1880s on the façade, a rotunda at the rear and, inside, a round salon with illusionistic paintings, a chapel and a staircase with trompe-l'œil decoration. The estate includes outbuildings arranged around a central dovecote, a walled landscape park, a grotto, an ice house, a garden bridge with a sluice and a former neo-Gothic porter's lodge. Sold in 1953 by Baroness Ruzette-van Caloen de Basseghem, the last noble occupant, the castle stood empty and deteriorated. Recognised as a protected monument in 1997, it was largely destroyed by a fire, probably arson, during the night of 9 March 2025. In May 2026, the Flemish Region announced the opening of procedures to withdraw its protection.