En un regard
Le château en bref
The Gellenberg estate occupies a slope to the north-west of the village of Lubbeek, in the Hageland (Flemish Brabant), covering nearly six hectares. Its origins go back to ‘’t hoff ten Berghe’, a fief of the Duke of Brabant held in the 14th and 15th centuries by the noble Hofstat family. It then passed to the Oratorians of Louvain, who sold the estate in 1753 to Claire-Hélène van der Noot, widow of Pierre-Léonard Baelmans, former first burgomaster of Louvain. Around 1775, the Baelmans transformed the farm and its lands into a country house with a park and ponds. The present castle, in the neoclassical style, is the result of successive extensions (between 1850 and 1860, then in 1907, 1911 and 1930) built around the main body of the late 18th-century house, which remains legible: nine bays, two storeys, and an arched pediment. The park, redesigned in the early landscape style around 1820, is admired for its ponds and its remarkable trees. It also contains a curiosity, a miniature ‘children’s village’ built in 1946-1953 by the children of the Halflants family, who have owned the estate since 1911. The estate has been protected as a monument since 10 August 2010.
