En un regard
Le château en bref
In the heart of De Pinte, on the edge of the Kerkplein, Viteux Castle is the culmination of nearly a century of changes to what was originally a simple country house. In 1847, Mrs Verniers-de Brabandene had a pleasure residence built on the site of a former farm; no architect is known for this first project. Around 1881, the house was adapted for year-round occupation, and the horticultural firm Burvenich, associated with the name of Frederik Burvenich, laid out a landscaped park around it, complete with a pond. A carriage house, located east of the house, dates from the mid-nineteenth century, while stables were built at the far end of the park in 1901.
The château character was not asserted until 1932, when H. Viteux, who would give his name to the estate, added a tower-like bay topped by a dome with a belvedere, and a colonnaded portico surmounted by a terrace in front of the central bay. The main body remains a sober rectangular volume of five bays over two and a half storeys, rendered and painted, under a hipped roof. Certain ornaments (a pseudo-pediment and a balustrade with urns) were removed in 1962. During the Second World War, the house temporarily served as the town hall. Since 2012, the park has housed Gerard Thienpont’s abstract sculptural group in white marble, ‘Verbondenheid’, to which the pillars of the entrance gate are also attributed. Since 20 June 2023, the estate has been listed in the Flemish inventory of architectural heritage (‘Kasteeldomein van De Pinte’), and it lies within the perimeter of the Kerkplein village-centre protected site (1994).
