Vilain Castle

En un regard

Le château en bref

Vilain Castle stands at Reninge, a village in the municipality of Lo-Reninge, in the Flemish Westhoek. It succeeded an earlier motte castle, the seat of the lords of Reninge first mentioned in 1116, which was destroyed in 1344 during a conflict with the city of Ypres over the cloth industry. The present mansion, built elsewhere around 1627 along the eastern arm of the moat, is the centre of the village seigneury. It belongs to a regional Flemish Renaissance style with neo-Renaissance elements: yellow brick, two wings of equal height under slate, a central octagonal turret capped with a pavilion roof, and a Tudor-arched porch surmounted by the arms of the Vilain family and their motto. Heavily damaged during the First World War, the building was rebuilt between the wars, with the south wing shortened by two bays. Protected as a monument since 23 November 1994, the ensemble, including its garden, has been on the inventory of the Flemish built heritage since May 2024. Parts of the moat survive to the west and south, while the western part of the estate was subdivided into building plots after 2005.