Kasteel 't Zand

En un regard

Le château en bref

The 't Zand estate, in Molenstede (Diest), is organised around a neoclassical residence built around 1868 for the entrepreneur and Catholic member of parliament Joseph-Adrien Beeckman, about fifty metres west of the former farm. The farm is mentioned in 1646, and the name ‘Het Sant’ appears in 1714. It is shown on the Ferraris map and in 1823 belonged to the widow Brughmans of Diest, at the centre of an estate of about 25 hectares. After a further division in 1868, Beeckman had a two-storey house on a raised basement built, under a high pavilion roof, with a polygonal tower topped by a spire to the south. He also converted the old agricultural buildings into a farm-château and coach house in the same style. A greenhouse was added in 1880, and an electrical workshop, probably a micro hydroelectric plant, in 1906. The three-hectare landscaped park includes a pond with an island, crossed by an arched bridge, a wooded belt, an access avenue and a wrought-iron gate, with notable copper beeches, American oaks, a tulip tree and a horse chestnut. Located at Klappijstraat 12, the estate has been recognised as built heritage since 2021.