Dalerschans

En un regard

Le château en bref

The Dalerschans, in Zutendaal (Limburg), is one of those fortified village refuges that rural communities in the Limburg Campine dug out in the seventeenth century to escape passing troops and bands of marauders. Laid out in 1641, it takes the form of a raised island surrounded by wide water-filled moats, which were crossed by a drawbridge. The inhabitants of the hamlets of Daal, Dorp, Sprinkele and Gewaai took refuge there in small temporary dwellings, under the authority of a captain and according to a set of regulations approved in 1642. The land belonged to the estates of the Abbey of Averbode, whose atlas of 1661 shows the enclosure surrounded by water and marshland. The moats, filled in over time, were reopened during the rehabilitation of the site in 2013, which was preceded by an archaeological excavation that uncovered remains of the drawbridge. The interior is now laid out as a place for walks, and the schans is marked on the Top Trail Lieteberg hiking route, which presents a reconstruction of it.