En un regard
Le château en bref
Lombaardstein Castle stands at number 53 Lombaardstraat, in Wavre-Sainte-Catherine (Sint-Katelijne-Waver), in the Mechelen arrondissement. It is a modest seigneurial residence, surrounded by a moat on three of its sides and set within a park of a little over one hectare.
The site has a long history. In the thirteenth century, it was a fief known as "Hof ten Steene" and "Hof ter Hertbrugge". In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, it became a water-surrounded pleasure house, to which a farm, a dovecote and a brewery were attached. The name Lombaardstein does not appear until the seventeenth century.
The present building, in brick with sandstone dressings, combines irregular volumes of one to three storeys under a slate roof with cut-out profiles. Its core, probably dating from the seventeenth century or earlier, has been heavily altered. The oldest part occupies the south-east corner. Here stands a polygonal stair tower of four storeys, probably erected around 1600, whose corner quoins, string courses and window surrounds are in sandstone. It abuts a square three-storey tower whose sandstone base may date back to the fourteenth century and whose top storey, added later, is crenellated. Bricks predating the second half of the fourteenth century are reported to have been observed in the cellar, which led the local historian F. Van den Wijngaert to suppose the original existence of a "steinen kamer", that is, an isolated stone tower house.
The north wing is in a neo-traditional style. Its side wall bears a sandstone stone dated 1738, probably reused. To the south-west survives an isolated portal in bluestone, topped by an arch with shouldered lintel. Inside, several fireplaces have been preserved, some of them neo-Renaissance with bluestone jambs. A brick outbuilding that once lined the street was demolished before 2016.
The castle has been listed in the Flemish immovable heritage inventory as "established architectural heritage" ("vastgesteld bouwkundig erfgoed") since 2009, an entry renewed on 29 March 2019. It is a privately owned property.
