En un regard
Le château en bref
Mijl Eke Castle (Lembergsesteenweg 19, Merelbeke) is a moated country house set in a park, recorded since at least the 18th century. In 1782 it belonged to a certain Coene and included a farm. In the mid-19th century it was held by the Claus family, and at the end of the century it passed by marriage to the Leirens family. The main building, a long rectangular block of three storeys and six bays under a slate mansard roof, bears the dates 1787 and 1914 on its corner stones. It is said to have been extended around 1875–1900 and remodelled around 1914 in a neoclassical Louis XVI style, with a central projecting bay topped by a bell-shaped pediment, a colonnaded portico and a balustraded terrace. The estate retains an ice house dated 1858 (according to cadastral data), an early 20th-century polygonal pavilion and several bridges. Protected from 2009 to 2023, it is now listed as having no heritage value and as not preserved by the Flemish inventory, with no details given as to the causes.