Château Het Steen

En un regard

Le château en bref

Het Steen in Elewijt, in the municipality of Zemst (Flemish Brabant), is known as the "Rubens Castle". The estate, whose origins sources link to the year 1304, entered art history when Pieter Paul Rubens acquired it in May 1635 for 93,000 guilders, together with the title of Lord of Steen. The painter lived there with his second wife, Hélène Fourment, from November 1635 and remained there until his death in 1640. The complex, made up of buildings surrounded by a moat with a drawbridge, lies in a landscape of farmyards, gardens, meadows and ponds, which the artist depicted in several landscapes from the final years of his career, among them The Rainbow Landscape (Wallace Collection, 1636), The Steen in the Early Morning (National Gallery, 1636) and The Tournament in front of the Château de Steen (Louvre, around 1638–1640). After his death, the property changed hands several times and was used, among other things, as a prison. Put up for sale in 2016–2019 for about 4 million euros, the castle was finally bought back by the Flemish public authorities in 2019; a master plan of 2023 foresees its opening to the public.