Hof ter Bruggen

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Hof ter Bruggen, in Betekom (municipality of Begijnendijk, Flemish Brabant), is a former moated castle, now demolished, whose lordship and the eponymous family of knights are attested as early as 1254. Initially a feudal castle composed of a high and a low courtyard, it was converted in the sixteenth century into a country house with a kitchen garden and ornamental gardens; the Albums de Croÿ show it surrounded by a wide moat. Around 1775, Joris's map gives it a trapezoidal water enclosure of about 3.5 hectares. Owned by a widow De Snellinck in 1822, then by Count Philippe van der Stegen de Schrieck in 1844, who had one wing remodelled in 1855, the estate was entirely demolished in 1882. All that remains today is the line of the moat, which surrounds the former island of the castle and that of the orchard, as well as a bridge of ferruginous sandstone spanning the Laak. The site is documented by the Flemish Inventory of Parks and Historic Gardens.