Schepdaal Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Schepdaal Castle, in Sint-Martens-Lennik (Lennik), is a large Neoclassical villa built around 1855–1863 for Brussels notary Henri Eliat on an estate of about nine hectares. His son Gustave, also a notary, continued the works. The main façade faces Schepdaal, where the family owned land, which gave the property its name. Sold in 1919 to three ladies of the nobility, the estate passed in 1928 to the Claes family. Louise Claes inherited it in 1932 and married Valentin Brifaut, a figure in Belgian scouting, who probably organised youth camps there. Occupied by the Germans during the Second World War, the property was sold in 1954 to the Sociale Voorzorg and entrusted to the asbl Levenslust, which established a medico-pedagogical institute there in 1957; the institute is still in operation. The villa, with its pavilion roof and belvedere, received around 1930 two transverse wings (H-shaped plan), a projecting central bay with a triangular pediment, and a monumental staircase. The landscaped park, most of whose ponds were filled in after 1957, covers about ten hectares and contains a remarkable oak.