Poeke Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Poeke Castle (Kasteel van Poeke), in Aalter in East Flanders, is a moated château with salmon-pink walls, set in a 56-hectare park and reached by bridges at the front and rear. A dwelling surrounded by water already stood on the banks of the Poekebeek in the 12th century, and the site is mentioned as early as 1139. It was destroyed on the orders of Philip the Good after the Ghent revolt of 1452, then rebuilt. It was remodelled in the 17th century by the Preudhomme d'Hailly family, in the 18th century by Charles Florent Idesbald, and finally, in 1872–1875, by Baron Victor Pycke de Peteghem, who gave it its present Neo-Historicist appearance and transformed the French formal garden into a landscape park. The château has been protected as a monument since 13 October 1943, and the park as a landscape since 1978. Owned by the municipality of Aalter from 1977, the château has been rented out for events since 1999, and it served as the setting for the series *Parade's End* (2012). Toerisme Vlaanderen has owned it since September 2021 and is preparing a family visitor trail, exhibition rooms and a seminar space there.