Kasteel Vroenhoven

En un regard

Le château en bref

Vroenhoven Castle, in Kortenaken, is a neo-Gothic mansion rebuilt around 1876 by Knight Adolf de Wouters de Vroenhoven, who gave it its present form of fourteen bays over two storeys. It was then remodelled in 1903 by the Brussels architect Alphonse Gellé for Fernand de Wouters d'Oplinter, a member of parliament and former Minister of Economic Affairs. The original Vroenhoven, a moated castle about one kilometre to the west, was in very poor condition when Jeanne Putteau bought it in 1748. It was demolished between 1753 and 1762, and its name passed to the Hof van Troyen, of which only the residential wing survived to become the "château". Gellé, an eclectic architect who also designed the Palace of Agriculture at the 1910 exhibition, added crenellated projections, oriel windows, dormers with stepped gables and a south-east façade in the English style. The park of around 20 hectares includes a crescent-shaped fishpond, a southern garden planted with yews and an exedra with five marble busts. A brick castle farm and a hunting lodge complete the ensemble, which was renovated in 2005–2006 and has been protected as built heritage since 2021.