En un regard
Le château en bref
Fruytenborg Castle occupies a park of about one and a half hectares at 315 Stationsstraat, in Sint-Katelijne-Waver, where it has kept its moat. Originally a simple farmhouse, the residence was converted into a small château in the 1870s: local historians suggest 1874 (W. Van Hoof) or 1877 (P. Diriken). In 1900 the estate was bequeathed to the municipal poor relief office to house elderly people, but it was sold again as early as 1903; the proceeds funded the Sint-Elisabeth retirement home on Wilsonstraat, which opened in 1908. Destroyed during the First World War, the castle was rebuilt after the conflict, probably on the former foundations, and then altered several times. The present building, in an eclectic style, combines one- and two-storey volumes set back from one another beneath slate roofs, with rendered plinths and string courses, and openings that are alternately straight-headed and arched. The access bridge retains its original wrought-iron railing between blue stone posts; a gardener's house in an L-shape stands to the south-west, and the park may also contain an ice house.